


Sea Storms

by xXRCSovaXx



Series: Child Of A Legacy [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Gods (Percy Jackson), BAMF Percy Jackson, Bruce is Emotionally Constipated, But he can make good combacks, But then again so is everyone else, M/M, Minor Dick Grayson/Wally West, Oh look at that the sanity has left, Percy is tiny, REM - Freeform, Smart Percy Jackson, Water Powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-02-20 07:52:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 26
Words: 95,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13142286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXRCSovaXx/pseuds/xXRCSovaXx
Summary: "Was there any tips offs?" I questioned, my voice suddenly hoarse. He nodded, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a piece of folded scrap of paper, cursive words written in blue pen. There was a name signed at the bottom, only one word."Kronos?"AKA a Percy Jackson/Dc crossover where Sally Jackson was once Sally Wayne.(Not crack, crossover taken seriously.)





	1. Hell Hath No Fury

**Author's Note:**

> Yo what up! This work was originally on wattpad, under the user rAnDOm-caPitAls which also happens to be me. Hello. 
> 
> I'm not going to make this long, but I got something to say.....You know what I'm tired and lazy, just enjoy the story. Hopefully.

I always knew that she would find out eventually and she would get hurt because of me. I should have never hugged her so tightly so that she saw me wince in pain. I shouldn't have told her where I got the bruises from. Then she wouldn't be laying on the ground with a kitchen knife in her stomach and I wouldn't be in the corner curled up into a ball trying(and failing) to lessen the impact of each kick.

\---FLASHBACK---  
" _Mommy," I yelled. She twisted her mouth in a soft smile as I squeezed the life out of her. I tried( and failed) to contain the wince as she pressed against my ribs that were bruised and sore from when I told Gabe that he should get his own beer._

_"Percy what's wrong?" She asked worry etched into her features. I had a moment of panic, she would know. I could keep nothing from her, she was like a detective._

_"uhh...nothing I just fell down the stairs," My 8 year old brain lied horribly, almost wincing with how horrible it sounded. We had a one story apartment._

_"Percy let me see," she said forcefully, her eyes burning with a fire only a mom could muster and I gulped. I didn't even want to know what she would say when she saw my collection of scars and bruises, I had hid them for so long._

_"No really i'm fine..." I looked down as my voice trailed off, you could tell from its panicked nature that I was evading the conversation._

_"Perseus lift up your shirt." I did as I was told and lifted the peice of cloth slowly over my he hrad. I heard a gasp at my collection of bruises from when Gabe would have his fun time."Who did this to you." I shook my head frantically, eyes wide with fear, she couldn't know._

_"No you can't know or he said he would hurt you too" she stared at me wide eyed and a mentally slapped myself. I gave her all the information she needed to figure out who did this to me. I can't tell if I did that on purpose._

_"It was Gabe wasn't it," She looked like steam should be coming out of her ears. The only other time I had saw this amount of anger in her eyes was when a man yelled at me in public. She was in full mom mode now and there was no going back._

_"Please mommy no, I don't want you to get hurt," I pleaded, but I knew it was hopeless she had eyes full of enough fury to kill with a single glare._

_"He does not get to touch my child" she yelled and I flinched, this was going to end badly. Gabe wasn't a man that cared for others, the only thing he would ever care for is beer, food and his poker games._

_"Sally," A drunken voice rang out through the small apartment followed closely by a door slam."Whach yu make fir dinner?" My mom growled under her breath at the disheveled as he entered the apartment door_

_"Mommy please no" I tried to say but my breath caught in my throat and her gaze flew away from me the glare at the drunk._

_" I can't believe I thought you were a good man" she yelled, voice as wild as a raging storm. Her eyes held a fury that could not be faked, I swallowed hard at the beginning argument._

_"Hu" Was his intelligent reply, beer bottle in hand. His eyes held confusion as the fat walrus took another swig of his 'happy juice'._

_"How dare you touch my son," she screamed, and he turned his gaze to me. He menacingly salkes over over, roughly grabbed my hair and pulled me to him. My breath hitched in pain as I was pulled up to his face that smelled strongly of alcohol._

_"You little brat" he thundered furiously, his features twisting into a snarl. My eyes went wide with terror and I tried to worm my way out of his grip but he held onto my shirt like it was the last doughnut in the world._

_"Don't you dare touch him" My mom screamed, tears brimming her eyes but her eyes were like a fire. Gabe's eyes held a sadistic gleam, and I shivered at the look, it wasn't the first time I had saw that gleam._

_"shut up bitch I'm going to teach him a lesson" He snarled back to her and her eyes just seemed to burn hotter, like she was releasing flames from hell itself._

_"Let him go"she scream and her hand collided with his face with a resounding smack. He boiled with anger, face turning red. He grabbed the kitchen knife of the counter and before I could warn her it was deeply embedded in her abdomen. I watched as her angry face turned into one of surprise and horror._

_"Mommy!" I sobbed tears flowing freely down my face. My whole world crashed down as she fell to the floor body writhing in pain. The light in her eyes, the light that made the whole world brighter, it slowly diminished into a dull ache. I stared at her lifeless form and screamed and ear piercing wail that seemed like it could shatter a window._

_The stench of alcohol got stronger as Gabe gave me his full attention. "Now it's your turn brat" he said with a wicked smile that made me shiver once more._

_"Please no" I croaked but it didn't make a difference. I tried to curl up as small as I could in the corner of the small apartment as he began to kick me full force. My sides exploded in pain as if he was stabbing me with the knife that was in my mothers stomach. My head swarmed trying to make out a coherent thought but all I felt was pain, pain of the image of the glassy eyes of my mother, the pain of the force of each blow on my already bruised ribs, and the pain of knowing that it wouldn't stop being painful for a while._

_"I've had to deal with you and that bitch long enough, I should kill you too, but I don't feel like it," he laughed, I mean he laughed, what kind of psychotic person is he? I made the mistake of looking up when I heard the retreating footsteps. When I did I felt something hard come in contact with my forehead and shatter knocking me out, but the pain was still there, I got the feeling it would never go away._

_\---FLASHBACK OVER---_

I regained consciousness and I wish I wouldn't have, pain overtook my senses. My ribs burned as I tried to sit up, and my head swarmed with the memories of the night before. It hit me full force, she was dead, I would never see her laugh again and it was my fault.

Straining to push myself into a sitting position against the cold wall, my arms felt like lead. My chest heaved as each breath burned like fire. Slowly opening my eyes I saw the scene of evil was still there. I looked away hoping to get it off my mind but it was forever burned in my retinas, and it was a worse pain than anything I could physically feel, a dull ache pulling my mind off course making it hard to form any coherent thought.

I had to get away from this, I couldn't live like this anymore. I soldiered on and tried to stand but fell in a heap as I pushed up. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to walk I crawled across the floor to the phone on the wall. I reluctantly pushed up, the wall supporting my weight, and stood taking a moment to somewhat regain any balance I had left. I grabbed the phone and pushed the numbers that i knew the best.

"911 what is your emergency" the operator called out over the phone.

"Please help" I managed to croak out.

"Sweetheart what is happened?"she asked worried.

"My step dad murdered my mom" I said quietly in between my painful sobs.

"What is you address and i'll send police and paramedics"

"I don't know but i'm in my mom's apartment"

"I'll track the cell just hang in there sweetheart" I keep the phone to my ear as I slid down the wall trying to block out the world.

A few minutes later I flinched when I heard a knock on the door and the signature open up. Good luck with that, if you want to get in you're going to have to kick the door in yourself because i'm not moving and my stepfather is most likely passed out drunk upstairs. My suspicion was correct as they kicked open the door a few moments later and looked around the small run down apartment until their eyes fell on me.

A man approached me and I clutched the phone to my chest. He bent down to my level and I stared at him with wide eyes. I tried to stand up again but my ribs weren't having it and doubled over in pain. He caught me and picked me up to carry me outside as the group of 4 or 5 men searched the apartment. He set me on a gurney and stayed with me until a paramedic came.

The paramedic leaned over and shined a light in my eyes asking my name.

"Percy" I managed to get out as I closed my eyes and focused on breathing, I just hoped it would get better.

I needed some better.


	2. Don't Dumb It Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No one reads these anyways. I could say what ever I want and no one would know....

_Beep beep beep beep._ My eyes shot open, the pounding in my head was made worse by the beeps of the insufferable machine. Taking deep painful breaths to calm down my heart rate I surveyed my surroundings. _Great a hospital, where people go to die_.

The events of the day before surfaced in my mind and I closed my eyes wishing it would be over. I would go into the foster system, live with someone probably worse than that old sot named Gabe and my life would be a living hell. It's sad really that an 8 year old has to think of these things. I looked over to the ECG, part of me wanted it to stop beating, it was making my headache worse, and part of me didn't because if it stopped beating I would be dead.

Sighing I tried to get into siting position but as soon as I moved I felt a stabbing pain in my side. Untensing my abdominal muscles I relaxed into the uncomfortable bed, _better than the floor_ I thought. Once again I sighed and took a moment to assess my injuries, 2 broken ribs on the left, three on the right, mild concussion, multiple abdominal bruises, I wouldn't be allowed out of the hospital for a few days. Closing my eyes I tried to think of anything other than the ache racking through my entire body and mind _my fault._ I could have, should have saved her, it was my fault she was dead. She could have had such a bright future and her blood is on my hands.

My eyes watered at the thought of her kind smile and the softness of her voice, who would end such a kind soul. I sniffed and tried to clear my thoughts I couldn't cry, crying made you weak. I couldn't be weak, if I were to let go of all my emotions I didn't know if I would be able to function. Holding everything in seemed like a better option than the opposition of exploding out on everything and not being able to form decent sentences, yes nothing was going to be let out, that seemed like a less dangerous notion. So in action, I swallowed all the urges to let out a scream of all of my emotions just to fill the deafening silence, blinked hard fighting the pressure building behind my eyes and ignored the stabbing pain in my head in favor of not thinking at all.  

After a moment of just laying down in a trance like state of thinking about not thinking, a nurse walked in, her hair a natural honey brown and the signature blue scrubs graced her body. She locked eyes with me and I saw her surprised glance that I was awake. She walked over to me hesitantly as if I was a frighten animal about to hightail it out of that insufferable place. If she hadn't come into the room that may have been the truth in a few hours at most

"Hey bud, how you holding up?" She questioned in a soft tone, strands of hair falling into her face. I looked into her eyes and then deeply sighed, seemed like all be doing that alot today. My face twisted into an expression resembling that of a confused  senile ranting teenager, how did she think I was doing? The fact that I was an infidel wouldn't get me very far in any conversation with an adult due to the lack of open mindedness. With the lack of social interaction between the time I had woken up to the present seemed better than a sickly sweet interrogation, no matter how much boredom ebbed at my amygdala.     

"Fine." I blatantly lied through gritted teeth. Maybe it would become the truth somewhere in the future but for now it was about as far away from the truth that it could get. "My name is Perseus Jackson if you haven't identified me yet, but call me Percy." I answered with a hoarse throat, trying to stay respectful no matter how much I wanted to scream out obscenities into the wind. 

She looked at me and smiled, I would almost believe it was genuine if it wasn't for the lack of crinkle at the edge of her eyes. Smiles were like a task, it's not completed if you truly don't care. I felt my features unintentionally fall microscopically, thinking wasn't the best plan of action but it seems that my brain has made it inevitable. "Thanks Percy." She grabbed my hand, squeezed it and gave me a pained look as if to show comfort but I flinched on contact. " Now that you're awake the doctor will be in shortly. Is there anything I could get you?" She asked, I shook my head, then looked up.

"I'm a little thirsty, and i'm guessing I can have water unless I'm having an operation, which I doubt because I only have broken ribs, unless they punctured an organ, then I would feel a whole lot worse and would be in the OR and not here talking to you." I said in deappaned breath  and she gapped a bit she gaped a bit. I looked up at her trying to keep my eyes void of the annoyance and she closed her mouth. "When Grey's Anatomy becomes useful." I mutter almost jokingly under my breath, well I hadn't lost the hopeless sense of humor.

She stared for a bit but seemed to regain her senses and did the job she was getting paid for. "Well my name is Mrs. Avanza, and since you seem to know all of those things I don't think I have to tell you to not move." I nodded and gave her a faked smile.

"Isn't avanza spanish for advance? but you don't seem to have any Latina background." _Or any advanced properties._ My brain rattled off, once again she looked surprised. What was she expecting? For me to be a stupid little kid? Oh that would be nice, go to birthday parties with other children who all have their fingers up their noses and eat bugs of the ground. So much fun. 

"Uh...yeah well the doctor will be in shortly, so yeah." She exited the small, grey recovery room in sort of a daze. As she went out the door I snorted, but immediately regretted it a my ribs didn't find it very funny. I looked out the small window to the right of the hospital bed . The light from the overcast sky of Manhattan doing nothing to help the depressing atmosphere of the room. _I thought they wanted people to get better, you need color in your rooms!_

I looked in the other direction on the bedside table and I found something that would make my existence much better. I slowly lifted my arms trying to ignore the pain in my sides and grabbed the remote to the room. Pressing the button to elevate the chair I sighed as I was pushed into a sitting position _much better_. I closed my eyes and got comfortable trying to stay still and wait for the doctor, but my hyperactive brain wasn't having it. Opening my eyes again I looked at the ceiling trying to think. I came up with a mental list to ask the doctor, such as when can I leave.

Thankfully it wasn't much later that the doctor came in with the nurse, my hyperactive brain couldn't take anymore not moving. The doctor was a bouncy blond haired blue eyed pediatric specialist, most likely going to baby me and answer none of my questions truthfully. Again so much fun, I think I would rather be at the metaphorical birthday party.

"Hello my name is Dr. Malice what's yours?" Dr Malice asked in an overly happy tone, I internally groaned but stayed respectful.

"Percy Mis" I answered and she nodded. 

"Well Percy you got hurt really-" I cut her off there, I would not take any more of this kumquat, it was getting on my nerves.  

"Doctor I might be 8 but you don't have to dumb it down for me, what are injuries?" I asked looking at her expectantly. She seemed to pause for a moment looking sort of taken aback before answering.

"You have 5 broken ribs, a mild concussion, internal hemorrhaging left of your navel and multiple severe bruises. And I have to ask where did you get them?" I looked down and sighed, again.

"The injuries I have are nothing compared to what has befallen my mother" I stated darkly as I looked up. I was ignoring the fact that I just sounded like a rip off version of Thor. "When is the estimated time in which I will be able to leave?"

She looked at me weirdly then it turned to a pity party." You will be able to leave in 4 days at the least but it's where your going when you get out that's the problem, a social worker will come by later to discuss the details with you. If you need anything don't hesitate to ask." I adopted a tormented faraway look as I thought about what I would do and where I would end up.

"Lets just hope I go somewhere better."


	3. A Better Place?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will get more exciting, I swear.

After the depressing talk with a very bouncy doctor, I overestimated my ADHD brains ability to not get tired. I was so tired, not only physically but mentally. The events that could unfold were unclear, I would run away but I had broken ribs and I know that I would be worse off than in a foster home. Closing my eyes I took deep painful breaths trying to think. Why couldn't I just think? Grunting I slammed my hands down on the hard mattress, there was a reason I could find a solution, there was none.

Opening my eyes I looked up to the dull grey ceiling with desperation, tears brimming my eyes but I didn't let them slip. I took shaky breaths, trying not to panic. Why couldn't it just be simple? Why was it me who had to suffer? I closed my eyes and let my head lull to the side, I just wanted to forget, why wouldn't sleep claim me? My face contorted in what could be called an attempt to block everything out, but when I tried to not think, thoughts tried to come through 10 times harder.

I made good progress as my shaky breaths became calm and evened out with darkness claiming me I thought _what did I do to deserve this life?_

In my restless sleep I was dragged into a dream, but different dreams. These dreams were more like nightmares. I can't control them or force myself to wake up, it's like a movie that plays in front of me. I opened my eyes into my subconscious and all I saw was inky darkness. Blinking I looked around the vast emptiness with curiosity and confusion, there was nothing, no scene playing out or even light. Then I got really dizzy, my vision blurred and the scene swirled around me. Getting very nauseous I fell to my knees and closed my eyes. When I opened them I was in an ally, the classic grime on the concrete and rusty fire escapes. I looked to the darkness enclosed ally end and I saw something that made my blood boil. The filtered yellow street light reflected off a man pinning a young woman to the wall, I could hear her whimpers.

"What do we have here?" The pig of a man remarked. The girl turned her head as the guy leaned in and deeply inhaled her in."Please" the young women whimpered as the guy brought a pocket knife up to her face caressing her cheek. I felt useless, I couldn't do anything in my dream and I had to watch the girl go through god knows what. I closed my eyes and let my head drop in shame, I couldn't stop my stepfather and now I can't even stop this thug.

"Release the woman," a boy's voice rang out through the alley. Opening my eyes I looked around to find the source of the voice but found none. The thug looked up from his task also confused with the young yet forceful voice.

"Come out kid," The thug shouted forcefully taking his attention away from the woman who secretly started to slide away.

"Now why would I do that it's so much more fun this way." The voice rang out but this time comically, then a laugh rang out. The laugh was bit creepy, it was like childish but threatening at the same time and it echoed in the small alley to where it sent shivers down my spine and by his expression it did to the thug as well.

A blur of black cut through the air to the thug, and in a second he was pinned to the alley wall by his hoodie sleeve. The voice in question jumped from the fire escape that was around 15 feet up and landed without a sound. I finally got a look at him and his appearance, he was kind of short with unruly black hair and an creepy joking grin and a really cool costume. It was a red zip up spandex shirt with black sleeves that cut off about to the elbows and black spandex tights that had red bleed down the sides, he had a black cape with yellow on the inside with a yellow weapons/tool belt, then his mask was black turning up at the end like wings and where the eyes are was white. Overall he looked pretty awesome and mysterious.

"Like a kid's going to stop me, frankly I'm a little underwhelmed" The thug snorted. The vigilante looked up and grinned again.

"Ok, 1, who has who pinned to the wall? And 2, why isn't anyone just whelmed? Like seriously are you really more than whelmed." He replied exasperated. He then proceeded to jump up and flip mid air pushing off the wall and landed on the thugs shoulders with ease, then he twisted his body so that he used his momentum to flip the thug and pinned him him to the ground. "Life lesson," The vigilante started "Estimate your abilities before a fight so it ends in aster." He said jokingly before punching the guy, hard.

He got up and walked over to the woman who had a tear stricken face. She jumped at him and captured him in a bone crushing hug muttering a thank you. "You're alright now do you need help getting home?" He spoke in a softer tone, gently detaching the woman from him.

"No I can get home alright thanks for saving me....."

"Robin". The woman smiled. 

"Thank you Robin let hope if we meet again it's not under these circumstances". Robin nodded and as the woman ran out into the street he muttered something under his breath.

"Good luck with that it's always in these circumstances when it's me." He looked to the street sadly before running up the brick wall behind him and flipping onto a fire escape.

"Is it time to turn in Bruce I have school tomorrow?" He questioned as he touched a finger to his earpiece. Something came through and Robin looked sheepish."Sorry batman, I'll remember next time, secret identities."

I got up of the concrete of the ally as Robin disappeared into the darkness and took one last glance at the dark stone walls before the inky darkness enveloped me once more and opened my eyes in the real world. Blinking the crust out of my eyes, I stared into the now dark room, night had fallen when I was sleeping. I thought back to the dream, it was peculiar, maybe my subconscious was saying that I wasn't useless and that I could be a hero but something told me that it was real. I thought back to when my mom let me watch TV and there was a program on Gotham crime, Batman was a badass vigilante and there was Robin, his apprentice. I thought back to when my dream was darkening and fading away, Batman's identity was someone named Bruce, this is crazy.

I sighed looked up at the ceiling before closing my eyes, and with less struggle I fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next time I woke morning light was streaming through the windows making the dull colorless room look a little fresher and homey. Blinking a couple of times to adjust to the light I attempted to scoot up further on to the bed and found that the stabbing pain in my rib was still present but dulled by drugs, my day just got a hole lot better. I pulled the thin white blanket up to my cold arms and breathed in the scent of hospital sanitized air.

When ever I tried not to think about it my thoughts always drifted to the subject of my dreams. Saying that they were weird would be an understatement I've never told anyone about them and I don't think I ever will. I had a dream once about a child running through the woods and falling down hitting his head and the next day the exact same child came up on the news pronounced dead. There was one that showed me a girl breaking into our apartment and a week later I heard a crash downstairs and some of our stuff gone. Then I had a dream right before the night, it was of her lifeless eyes, even though I tried I seemed to not be able to change what happens in my dreams. So what was the purpose of the dream from last night? All of these questions ran through my head as a knock on the door broke my train of thought.

A mid 30's looking brunette in a blue dress shirt and slacks was standing the doorway with a fake smile plastered on her face. I looked at her with an impassive face, discretely studying her. On her finger was a wedding ring that was shining brightly, happily married 2 years based on the ware. She was mad about something by the forceful way of walking, most likely job related. She also bites her lip a lot. Smiling back at her I started the conversation.

"What can I do for you mis....Deborah" I asked reading her name tag.

"Hello Perseus i'm here to talk about where you will be living,"I muttered a duh under my breath.

"I,m guessing that it involves the words 'foster' and 'home'" I stated sadly.

"Well young man we dug up a little if your mother's past and found that her name is actually Sally Dexter Wayne and you will be staying with your uncle Bruce Wayne at his manor" I froze as the words came out of her mouth, that was a turn of events, at least now a now why I had the dream, let's go live with Batman.


	4. At Least It Has Color

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Percy meets Bruce. Maybe he'll be a good dad after all...

This was going to be very interesting, I knew that my uncle was Batman but how do I tell him I know? Oh.... I just saw you in a dream that tells future events. How am I so skilled in combat? No reason, I don't study fighting styles or anything... Yeah he would see straight through any lies I had, but he would find out eventually, he's batman.

Closing my eyes I thought back to when I found out my powers. Ironically I was in the shower and the water suddenly got very cold and I squealed then I was dry. I looked around the shower and found that the water wasn't even touching me, it was rolling off my skin like I had liquid repellent. I lost concentration and I started to get wet again. After that I stared at my hands for about 30 minutes just debating if that just happened, the spray of the shower still pelting down freezing water but that was now ignored. Hesitantly I put my now shaking hand under the spray and concentrated on moving the water. I felt a tug in my gut and I started to get lightheaded as I made a stream of water come to me. My eyes widened and my expressing filled with pure joy. I had powers, awesome powers.

That was one of the more fond memories I had experienced, though most were not so recently. Opening my eyes I brought my hands to my face and looked at them distastefully. Who would want me, I'm way more trouble than i'm worth, Gabe was right. I couldn't help it, a tear slipped down my face and I couldn't stop it, more came with it. I frantically wiped my face trying to recompose myself, I hated this hospital.

I looked around the room that I had already committed to memory once again and tried to clear my head. I had to get out of this dam room and go for a walk or something. My hands started to fidget with the seat remote as I grew restless. Finally I had enough and slowly sat up in the uncomfortable bed, ignoring the burn in my sides. I slowly swung my legs over the sides of the bed and let my feet dangle over the side. Making a split decision and slid down the bed, when I put pressure on my feet and stood up straight I almost fell to my knees as the burn in my ribs worsened and my head started to pound. Using the bedside table and pushing past the pain that was trying to overcome my body, I took a shaky step towards the bathroom. I reached it with a few more steps but by that time I was already panting heavily. Leaning on the wall I walked up to the mirror grabbing on to the sink tightly as I looked at my reflection. I looked horrible, my eyes were a bit sunken in, my skin was too pale and I looked as if I had just ran a marathon and not taken a few steps. I had multiple bruises all over my scrawny form and as I lifted my gown you could see my broken ribs jutting out, even through the wrappings. Searching my form for something not damaged I looked at the reflected eyes and the piercing sea green orbs that shone through my raven black tousled hair were desperate but strong, my stubborn eyes refused to show my brokenness, maybe I wasn't as broken as I thought.

Closing my eyes I took a deep shuddering painful breath and exhaled slowly. I was wasting my thought thinking about if I was worth it, I had to think about how I could get better. I took once last glance at my reflection as I slowly walked through the door and got back into my bed.

I stared out the gloomy window until there was a knock on door and it opened to the social worker, finally I get to leave this horrible prison.She was happier today I noticed as I analyzed her. She was still wearing slacks but today she had on a gray blouse and a black suit coat. She held a genuine smile as she walked up to me, her step no longer forceful, but relaxed.

"Hi Percy," she greeted." Guess where you going today" I had to refrain myself from calling out her annoying tone but resorted to sarcasm.

"Let me guess... Narnia.... no I'm definitely going to Hogwarts." I stated with a bored tone. She laughed dryly and that was enough to lift my spirits a bit.

"Well as much as you might want to go to Hogwarts and be a wizard your uncle Bruce is going to pick you up and bring you to his manor" she stated cheerfully. With that she exited

I'm not going to lie I was a bit worried about if he could see straight through me and find out about my powers, and by worried I mean down right panicking. I kept a calm exterior and kept my face void of all emotions, except doubt, but I couldn't help that one for all I knew he could be like Gabe and I could be going from one hell to the next.

Lost in thought, my green eyes staring out the window almost didn't detect the quite blur of movement at the door. My head shot off the elevated bed as Bruce entered the room, and it was a bit like I was expecting. He wore a formal suit and tie, the hair slicked back so it shined in the incandescent lighting, and he had the permanent scowl etched in his face. I noticed that his chiseled face had a blank and serious look like he hasn't laughed in 20 years, that was just asking for a challenge. I caught his gaze and it was way more laid back then the bat glare but still reprimanding and cold as if I was in trouble, I had to keep myself from thinking about Gabe with that glare. As he studied me his eyes softened and his cold and impassive expression turned to one of sadness maybe a hint of happiness, though it was almost impossible to make out beyond the scowl, it was there.

We just stared at each other for a moment before I broke the ice."So we just going to stare or...." he looked down seemingly lost in through, and he thought that I couldn't read him.

" Sorry, you just look alot like your mom" I shrugged sadly.

"She always said that I looked like my dad" I closed my eyes blocking out the memories, I barely remember my dad but my mom always talked about him like he was a saint.

"So how come my... she never talked about you?" I asked my voice cracking. He finally entered the room rather than standing awkwardly in the doorway and came to sit down at my bedside chair.

"Well.. " he started looking into his lap." After our parents died she was kind of...distant." he sighed and shook his head."We had a falling out and she said that she couldn't take it anymore, she ran and we never saw her again." He raised his gaze to me sadly, and I met it. He should know that he doesn't have to keep up the facade of and unmoving business man. Now that I think about it neither should I, just a child forced to grow up.

I looked him in the eye and let them water a little before I closed them and wiped furiously. I sniffed and tried not to look him in the eyes, if I did he would see how weak I was. "I already have an adopted son at home and he's 4 years older but I'm still not very.... fatherly you could say." I looked at him and my expression turned playful.

"There are several different words that would fit your love life according to the media mister playboy/philanthropist" I ventured with a smirk."Some would describe you as uncompassionate, cantankerous, imperturbable and adept but I think you have profuse qualities that people don't care to point out." He didn't show hit of shock or amusement, nothing, this is going to harder than I thought.

"Big words there and I don't know if I should be vexed or prurient." I shrugged a smirk gracing my features.

"I was going mirthful, it's going to be harder than I thought to get you to smile, but I like challenges." I grinned. "So what do you say we get out if this heinous place. I'm already depressed, I don't need this hospital's fifty shades of grey style to pull me down the ditch of blandness." He gave me a quizzical look and I laughed."Your so called manor better have color and at least some style or I'm going to need a noose." I stated seriously. I saw a twitch in the sides of his mouth, not even noticeable, but I did a mental victory dance.

He called the nurse in to get me a wheelchair, and what did we do during the time that she was gone, well we sat in awkward silence. My ADHD got the better of me and I started to fidget, a lot, and he noticed.

"Are you really that nervous about going to my house" he asked, I shook my head and blushed.

"No I have ADHD and I've been in this room for 2 days without any source of entertainment" I answered, exasperated. We fell back into silence, and I sighed deeply.

He brought me clothes so I wouldn't have to wear my gown, and they were practically hanging off me. The red shirt that probably belonged to Dick was at least three times my size and the knee length basketball shorts nearly went down to my ankles, even tied tight with the adjustable band they barely stayed up.

Finally the nurse got back with the wheelchair and I proceeded to ride it straight out of my room not even waiting for Bruce. As I waited for the elevator I was giddy with excitement, not even caring if my consent fidgeting caused my sides to burn. The ding of the elevator came and ran, well wheeled in, my uncle on my heels. What, I barely get to act my age, I should have fun with this chance.

After Bruce signed me out he wheeled me up to a sleek black limo, a freaking limo! I mean I guess if you have a lot of money you flaunt it. I just shrugged and carefully slid into the back and my uncle slid in next to me. We sat awkward silence once more until he took the liberty to break it.

" If you going to be living with me I have some rules," I gave him a blank look and gestured for him to go on."First off if you're going somewhere you must inform me, Dick, or our butler Alfred. Secondly you must treat the manor, and the people in it, with respect." I thought for a second then nodded the rules were ok.

" They are fair so i'll follow them but while we're at it I have some rules of my own"I smirked." First off no treating me like a child, I hate it when people underestimate my intelligence." I ranted in an annoyed tone." And if you can help it I would like to stay out of the media's eyes, I don't want to be prodded at by some media station." I said looking at him in the eyes.

"Fair enough, but I can't promise the second one." he warned and I sighed.

" Just as long as they don't refer to me as adorable. What is it with woman and the cute little boys? Don't even get me started with pinching the cheeks and sometimes they even ruffle my hair! Don't do these things we will get along great." he kept an impassive and stern face through the entire rant, DANG IT!

We rode in silence the rest of the way and when we got there I have to admit I was impressed. It was a like a modern mansion mixed with castle, it had gardens leading up to it, and even bush figures. I was wheeled into the manor in awe, it was so big, maybe 200 times the size of my mom's apartment. Inside was bathed in a warm glow created by multiple fancy lamps attached to the tan colored walls and a giant crystal chandelier in the middle of the high ceiling, hanging down over the marble counter top. To the left of the entrance was the living room, which was accompanied by 5 different sets of black spotless couches, black coffee tables and a 7 foot flat screen TV with a fully equipped gaming system. To the left was filled with a dining area with a polished brown mahogany table that seated at least 20, and an open kitchen with a large marble counter top and the normal cooking supplies. they even had a sleek spiral staircase leading to the next floors.

"I had my doubts Bruce but you obviously have style" I stated still in awe." The kitchen alone is bigger than my mom's apartment!" By this time I was bouncing in excitement.

"Well i'll tell Alfred to put away the noose," I stared at him in shock for a moment then smiled, Batman made a joke, cue internal victory.

He noticed my sudden change in my demeanor very quickly, because he's Batman.

"what?" he asked a tad confused.

"Nothing, you just finally made a joke Mr. brood and it's refreshing that the cantankerous man can be like the rest of the civilian population once and awhile" I clarified with a smirk."It's still my mission to make you smile, so beware" with that I wheeled myself into the living room fell dramatically onto the rich persons couch, I could get used to this.

 


	5. I Get Decapitated By A Unicorn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooooo look at that, apathy.

Falling asleep on the couch was not a good idea, I mean it's more comfortable than any bed I have ever been in, but then I could have avoided a very awkward moment.

It wasn't my fault that I got dragged into what I dubbed 'the dream realm'. I mentally sighed, I needed to learn how to control this. Maybe I could control it maybe I couldn't but it wouldn't hurt to try.

I thought hard, thought of every detail I could remember and made a mental picture of myself on the couch sleeping. I felt the nausea that told me something was going to happen to replace the dark abyss of my subconscious and I reflexively closed my eyes. When I opened them I view the current state of the Wayne manor's living room where I was sleeping. Well that answers that I guess i'm not always dragged.

I stared at myself for a second, viewing in distaste. I was still in the way to big red shirt that looked more like a blanket and those basketball shorts that were pants on me. I was still very scrawny and everywhere bone made contact with the skin practically jutted out in sharp angles.

I looked away from my sleeping form for a moment to recompose my thoughts, time is fluid in dreams so I had all the time in the world to myself. Closing my eyes again I thought about one of the happier memories and when my eyes opened I was relieved to find it in front of my eyes.

It was my 6th birthday, I didn't get celebrate them much but when I did my mom made up for it. We were at the park eating ice cream, mine blue of course, and my face was lit up in a childish grin. I watch sadly from aside as my younger form cleaned off the remaining ice cream from his hands and my mom chuckled softly from beside the park bench.

"I have one last surprise for you before we go home, k?" She announced in a radiant tone. He nodded buoyantly with an expression of pure joy and excitement.

He watched transfixed as his mother brought out a small leather box gold cursive engravings. She smiled sweetly as my younger self looked up at her with curiosity. She took the box and held it close to her heart, as if it was the most important thing to exist.

"What is it?" the now 6 year old asked, inquisitiveness lacing his features. The mother observed the box for a moment longer before answering.

"It belonged to your father" she responded despondently but with a hint of happiness."He said if he ever didn't make it.. that he wanted you to have it." The mother closed her eyes as if lost in thought and let her head drop before barley kept in tears shined their way through."Your father was the greatest man I had ever come across, and one heck of a hero complex." She stated smiling softly at her memories." You may not remember him but you were the most important thing in the world to him, I I... just wish he could have seen you grow up" the mom choked on her words and he embraced her with his tiny arms. The young child's features were laced with understanding, even at the young age he was more intelligent than most.

"Can.. can I see it?" He asked pulling away and looking into her eyes. She nodded held it out in her hand. He grabbed the box tenderly, as if it were a bomb that could explode at any moment.

I looked sadly at myself as he opened the worn ring holder, in it was a ring, the only thing I had left of my father and now my mother. I thought that the memory would take my mind off the world, but it only brought me back to reality, she was gone.

My subconscious went dark again as the dream memory faded and I fell to my knees, curling in on myself. Sobs racked my diminutive body as I tried to forget my problems, my mother, my injuries, my powers, all of it. I just wanted to forget about everything but that's not how it works, I needed to face them.

Trying to recompose myself I took several shaky breaths trying not to think about _that_ night. Instead I chose to envision myself on the couch in the Wayne manor, my scrawny form on the expensive leather. I almost sighed in relief as I opened my eyes to the familiar scene, but this time someone I felt was familiar but couldn't place was sitting on the couch next to my sleeping form. This all would have been fine, but he was staring at me, intently.

It was like that for a while, me just watching him watching me. He had a head of pitch black hair that was wild and sticking up in odd directions, he wore a dress shirt and a red tie with slacks. Then I felt really stupid for not figuring out that this was probably Dick. I mean I did just have a mental break down in my subconscious, but is that really an excuse to not put two and two together. I just want to know why he's staring at me.

I watched as Bruce silently strolled down the staircase and came to a position behind Dick and also began a staring contest.

"He looks peaceful when he sleeps" Bruce commented and Dick jumped up at least 2 feet in the air. I laughed silently as Dick gave him an exasperated sigh.

"At least give me some warning before sneak up on me, not whelmed, not whelmed at all" he stressed with a disapproving glance, then his expression softened."His name is Percy right?" He asked looking up to Bruce who nodded."What's his story?"

Bruce glanced at my sleep form with an unreadable expression, turning his vision downcast he spoke."I don't think it's my story to tell." Dick nodded in understanding and looked back to me. Bruce walked around the couch to my other side and lowered his form onto the dark leather."He will come through though, he's a Wayne, we are way too stubborn not to."

With that I let the image fade out, and the dark abyss surrounded me once more. I was partially confused though, why would they care if I was ok? I only met them like 2 hours before. The only person who cared for or even loved me was my mom. I just don't get it, why did she have to die? What did she ever do to deserve such a fate? WHY DID SHE EVEN MARRY THAT PIG OF A MAN?

Grabbing the sides of my head I almost ripped my hair out from my grip. Once More I curled into myself, I was so weak, I didn't have enough strength to keep the memory away. Colors swarmed violently around me as rocked back and forth in the fetal position, as if it was trying to form a hurricane.

 _"Don't you dare touch him"_ I closed my eyes trying to block everything out, breathing heavily.

 _"Let him go"_ My body racked with sobs as I he plunged the knife in again and I heard myself scream.

" _Now it's your turn brat"_ I screamed in my subconscious, a scream that tore through everything. Wind ripped apart the memory as my face contorted in anguish. The scream shattered my thoughts as if they were a glass. Everything was blown back yet nothing was ever there in the first place, it was my memory.

I fell to my knees as the scream died in my throat, for a second I was confused as of why, then I looked down. There was a sword protruding from my neck as if someone stabbed me. But who could stab me in my mind? I think the only person that's in my subconscious is my friend Mr unicorn, real original name, that was against my will. Even when I got over that phase he still popped up at random times and farted in my face, you know what happens when they fart. Dam it ADHD we don't need to figure out if it was mister unicorn or not, we need to find out why he stabbed me through my throat, and why is he so violent.

Since that train of thought was going nowhere I thought of myself as whole again with no sword imbedded in my neck and after a moment a was no longer on the floor but behind the person who stabbed me, and it was no unicorn.

It was a girl.

She wore a worn black cloak that trailed behind her with the the hood down, so that her wild curly blond hair was blowing in the wind that I created in my anguish. She couldn't have been over 12 though I had a feeling she was much more intelligent than I thought. Then she turned around, she had stormy grey calculating eyes, sharp features, a light grey floor length dress covered in swirling black accents that looked as if they were moving and a glowing silver amulet. She still had the sword that she stabbed me with in her hand, it was made of bronze and was about three feet long, it seemed to be glowing even in the endless void of my mind.

"You know it's rude to stab people" I commented after a moment. She cocked her head to the side, her face wearing an unreadable expression.

"You and I both know that you could have torn your mind apart if you continued" She announced. I avoided her stormy eyes as she walked up to me, silently studying me."Why do you doubt your worth?" She asked after a moment. I looked at her funnily before I came to a conclusion.

"Telepath?" I asked, she gave me a ghost if a smile and nodded.

"Yes Perseus and I'm going to be straightforward with you, your in danger, we don't know why, but it's about your father." She stated elegantly and softly.

"Who is he" I asked my voice quivering slightly. She looked at me in sympathy

"His name was Poseidon, better known as Storm" she answered looking downcast. "He along with my mom Athena or Mindset were super villains but they turned away from that life to do what was right in the end getting killed in the process" she looked back into my eyes with sadness."He was a hero in the end, they both were" her voice was so soft it was almost a whisper."This" she brought up the bronze blade."Was his sword, Anaklusmos or Riptide. He would want you to have it, to be the hero that he was in the end." She took a shaky breath looked away. " when you wake up in will be in you pocket in the form of a pen that you uncap, it will always return there." She looked at me saldy once more."Don't tell anyone of you powers and... and try not to repeat history, watch out for yourself Perseus" with that she turned around and started walking into the darkness.

"Wait" I yelled after her and she turned around giving me a _what_ look." I never got your name."

"I'm Annabeth, we will see each other again don't fret, we are not done with each other." She turned back around, her cloak billowing around her and everything faded to black.

I opened my eyes and bolted upright, my thoughts swirling as if the storm I created was not dissipating. I heaved heavily and clutched my sides in pain, I really miss the no pain factor in my subconscious. Slowly lowering myself back onto the couch I looked at surroundings and found that I had been basically laying on Dick and Bruce who both were still sprawled out on the couch asleep. Awkward

I silently stood up as to not wake the sleeping vigilantes took careful slow steps. I made it to the kitchen and surveyed the contents of the fridge. Picking up an apple and looking at the time, 3am dam it, I sat down at the counter lost in thought. I slipped my hand into my pocket grabbing the pen just to make sure it real.

The talk in the dream realm with Annabeth had answered a lot of questions but created even more. Why was I in danger? What made my dad turn good? Closing my eyes I put my head in my hands. Did things have to always be complicated? I sighed and took a bite of my apple, relishing the sweet taste.

"You must be Pursues" A male british voice rang out. I must have jumped 3 feet in the air and twisted to look at the place that was empty a second ago. There stood an old man with white hair and a black suit. He must have been former military with the stance and hardened face, based off the accent most likely MI6. Sighing I ran my hands over my face and slowly stood up putting out my hand, which he shook.

"You must be Alfred, the ninja butler" I inquired and he chuckled softly.  
"MI6?" I asked and he looked at me strangely.

"Yes, may I ask how you could tell?" He questioned, I smiled sheepishly.

"The accent is a dead give away" I answered with a shrug then winced. I put a hand to my stupid ribs and sat back down."So... what's it like living here?" I asked taking another bite of my apple, he smiled.

"If you mean what are the people living here like? I can answer that but only you can answer your own question truthfully" I looked down and asked the unvoiced question with my eye's."Bruce has a good heart, like a son to me and Dick the same. Based on the level of your intelligence I would say you will fit in fine." I looked him in the eyes and smiled.

"Thanks Alfred." He smiled back." Say... do perhaps have a room in this gigantic place" I asked looking around the kitchen.

"Yes I have prepared you a room, perhaps you would like to turn in for the night" I nodded.

"Yes but I doubt that I will sleep anymore" I stated with a shrug.

He led me up the spiral staircase, curse my ribs 100 times over, and opened the third door down a hall. He motioned for me to enter and when I did I stood frozen in the doorway. It was one of the nicest rooms I had ever seen. The bed was black sheets and pillows with a light blue comforter that had accents of white, walls the same color as the comforter with grey swirls, a white roof and carpet. I turned around, breaking out of my stupor, but Alfred was already gone. Shrugging I entered fully and made my way to the balcony. Opening it and stepping out, my eyes gleamed in joy, it was over the ocean.

Breathing in the salty air and watching the waves crash over the shores of Gotham, a tear slipped down my face. This tear it wasn't of anguish or loss, it was of hope. I had hope  
  



	6. Sleeping Ninjas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why is this story do cute so far? I didn't mean to. It's supposed to be heart breaking and depressed, full of the meanings of life and sacrifices. 
> 
> Not cute, I'm a horrible writer.

"So I'm an alien," I concluded, looking innocently at the exasperated blond. She ran her hands down her face and sighed, it was fun messing with her. In my defense it was a lot to take in and comprehend, I was basically an alien.

"No seaweed brain you are not an alien, you have an alien bloodline passed down for hundreds of years, your more human than alien." She stressed, I was still an alien, she couldn't take that fact away.

I took a deep breath and changed the setting in my mind to the night sky, the twinkling stars calming my nerves. Getting up from place on the ground I took out riptide an stared at it, I could feel the power and it latching on to me. I was beyond curious, was it alien?

"So we covered the different bloodlines and that I'm one of the last REM and water user's, but what about this," I brought Riptide to my face to inspect it."Why do I feel drawn to it" Annabeth smiled.

"That is a very special artifact, there.... is something that I have to explain to you first though," her eyes closed and turned downcast if there was stuff that she didn't want to remember. "The life of a descendant is cruel and malignant, we often get killed before we reach adulthood." She looked me in the eyes with so much firmness that I was almost taken aback."There are bounty hunters out there that hunt are kind down, they are horrible creatures." She finished.

I was a bit scared now, why haven't I seen them before? She noticed my expression and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. As if reading my mind, which she was, she answered my question.

"Your scent was hidden, your mother married Gabe because he was so disgustingly human that he masked your scent. Now you must be vigilant, they will come after you" tears almost brimmed my eyes, she married him because of me. Because of me.

"The sword that you hold is an ancient relic passed down your family line, it was your father's, and now it's yours. The reason you feel attached to it is because it is literally attached to your lifeline, use it well because it is made out of the only material that can kill these creatures." She explained sadly.

"How am I supposed to know how to use a sword?" I questioned almost pleading. I mean it wasn't like it was something you could search on the Internet. She smirked.

"How about tomorrow I bring some of my friends?" she suggested standing up. My eyes lite up in excitement, I was actually going to learn how to use a sword."My friend Luke is 9 but he is more skilled in combat than I am, he has time blood." She said wistfully."Then my friend Rachel, we call her RED Oracle, she can show you how to use REM, she's one of the most powerful in her bloodline," she said that one blushing, someone has a crush. Then she blushed even more."I heard that, I do not have a crush," her tone couldn't fool me.

"So I get to meet them?" I asked in an enthusiastic tone. She nodded and adopted a faraway look.

"Yes, but I have to go now someone is near my body" she seemed almost worried as she exploded into light, always one for dramatics. I need to practice anyways so I guess i'll see if she ok. I focused on my powers and thought of her face, her force. I almost cheered as colors started to form around me and made the picture of a small but neat apartment.

I watched in interest as a saw Annabeth talking with a redhead, and judging on how she was blushing, I assume is Rachel. Not wanting to intrude on a private moment I drawed back into my mind before they could sense me. I smirked knowing that she would not escape the teasing that is to come.

Returning back to the dark abyss I call my mind, I was debating on if I should wake up. Then I settled on the latter and thought of the current location of Dick. Colors swarmed around me once more and settled in a dark and damp setting with yellow light reflecting off the streets of Gotham. This was a normal occurance for me, me stalking Batman and Robin on their nightly outings. Its easier than being with them though, I usually just keep to myself, they just don't really know what to do with me. Call it what you will but mostly I just want to make sure they don't die.

Smiling warmly as I watched, as a lowlife thug tried to take down Robin because he was smaller. He then proceeded to dodge a punch from the thug an send a kick to his abdomen. The thug doubled over and Robin jumped up, twisting mid air, and brought his foot down on the thugs head, knocking him out. He continued to do so until all the thugs were knocked out or incapacitated.

Breathing heavily the protégé to Batman entered a slightly newer building that looked normal on the outside, but on the inside was full of weapons and futuristic tech. Running into what looked like the command room he flopped into a twisty chair in front of a gigantic supercomputer that was pulsing with crimson light and started to type faster than my eyes could perceive. Everything was quite except for the clicks on the keyboard.

I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding when the crimson light turned to a bright green and Robin sighed in relief. "Bats, I shut down the missiles, what is your status with Joker?" The caped crusader questioned as he pressed a finger to his comm. He waited but nothing came through except static."Bats? Bats are you there?" He asked through his comm more worried.

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion, who could take out batman? I gave Dick one last worried glance before concentrating on Bruce's aura and searched all of Gotham. The image of Dicks worried face was swept away and was replaced by a gruesome sight. Bruce was tied to a rusty chair with wire that was digging into his skin harshly, and that was the least of it. His face still had the caw on but you could tell it was bloodied and bruised, his cape was torn in several places, and he had knife slashes in the joints of his kevlar armor. He looked like he was passed out but that really help did it? I was almost panicking, he couldn't die he was Batman.

I calmed my nerves and took a deep breath, I had to wake up or there was a chance that he wouldn't make it. Sure Batman has a tracker but what ever has him beaten and bloody is something that I had no chance at defeat, or Dick.

I forced myself to roam into the land of consciousness and bolted upright in bed. I breathed forcefully for a moment before jolting to a more awake state and trying to untangle myself from my black sheets. After tripping on the floor in a very undignified manner, I sprinted across my room to a high tech computer.

I'm not going to say who taught me how to hack, but I guess I'm better than most hackers at my young age. I mean I'm not a novice by no means so I created a hardware inside my father's ring that is artificial intelligence, ruttementry stuff.

"Leo, gain access to the Justice Leagues alert system," after a moment the AI's voice rang out an affirmative and I smirked.

"Access is granted sir, would you like a plate of fries with that?" I rolled my eyes and smirked at the AI's sarcasm that I installed.

"You know what I need," Leo pulled up a video chat to the Justice League and blurred my face and I sat back and waited for the show. Music played over the league's system, it was one my favorite songs to, 'lite em up' by Fall Out Boy.

"Lite em up up up   
Lite em up up up   
Lite em up up up, i'm on fire" I sang along until the music abruptly stopped and I had Aquaman, Superman, and the Flash in front of my computer screen." Oh good your here, we need to talk" I stated and Leo disguised my voice as a peppy cheer leader. I glared at my ring and made it so where my voice would be deep and mysterious."We need to talk" I tested out again and then nodded, it sounded like I had grown 20 years.

"Who are you" Superman demanded with a scowl. I smirked though they couldn't see it, it was my chance to be mysterious.

"It matters not who I am, but what I know is vital" I said seriously, no hint of amusement, this was my uncles life on the line. Silence filled the room as no one dared to speak against my tone."Your leader has been captured by Joker and you might want to help out his protégé before he gets himself killed." My gaze scanned the room cryptically as the three superheroes fell into a daze. Before I broke the connection I had an idea."And you can call me Somnium Storm ."

I kept a cool exterior but on the inside I was screaming, that was so awesome. Shutting down the computer and putting Leo to sleep mode, I layed back in the chair and tried to enter the REM, I grinned when I opened my eyes to the familiar empty abyss. I quickly thought of Bruces aroua and was dragged into his location, he was still seemingly passed out and tied to a chair in the crummy room. My heart almost broke as I saw him in his condition, I hadn't even been with them for a week, yet I had this feeling that I would die for them. It was doing me no good looking here I needed to check on Dick, and make sure he isn't killed.

After I arrived to where Dick is, I was a little surprised that he was already close to the tracker's location. I thought he would be smarter and call back up, but you can't have everything. I watched in worry as he flipped onto the building that Bruce was being held in, he didn't even survey the area. I get that he's distressed about his father, but that doesn't mean you get yourself killed. I felt a little better when I noticed he was sticking to the shadows and climbed into a vent pipe on the roof.

I silently pleaded that he wasn't going to try and rescue him yet, _please wait_. I couldn't do anything, I couldn't warn him, I was useless.

He moved stealthily through, barely making a sound as he navigated the small tunnels, the schematics of the building pull up on his tablet. Coming to a stop he surveyed, through a vent, the room where Batman was tied up and heard a startled gasp coming from Dick. His expression was so full of rage you could see his vengeful expression through his domino mask. I knew that expression well, I've worn it many times, and that was what I was afraid of. When I had that expression I did reckless things, took chances that I knew were wrong but I wanted to just have fate kicked where it hurts.

Sure enough Dick unlatched the vent he was peering through and gracefully yet forcefully swung out of cramped space and into the cell like room. He rushed to Batman's side and attempted to unlatched the wires and free him but they were tied expertly and reinforced with titanium alloy.

Robin hung his head in defeat as all his attempts to free Bruce were fruitless. Bruce jolted awake then and his eyes widened at the distressed Robin. Probably thinking the same thing I am, _are you trying to get yourself freaking killed._ Robin expression lighten and he rushed Bruce into a soft hug.

"Robin you have to listen" Bruce coughed weakly."These guys are too much to take by yourself, leave before they.." crimson lights flashed outside the corridor and the blaring alert signal rang out through the room."know your here" he finished.

The door to the room burst open to reveal around 15 armored guards with futuristic weapons all aiming at Dick. Before he could even move a muscle, they shot him with something that looked like a taser and he fell to the floor writhing. I cried out in vain but I was just an observer, I couldn't do anything.

I couldn't watch this anymore, I had to wake up and do something. Drawing out of REM I crawled out of my bed once more and dragged my groggy frightened form to the door. I made my way down to the kitchen through the maze of corridors that I memorized in my sleep. Droning on I entered the room that contained the holy thing called a rich person's food and grabbed an apple from the fridge. Making a spit decision I exited the door of the manor passed the garden fence and made my way down the rocky slope where it connected to the sea. Breathing in the scent of the ocean I felt more at peace, I was dieing to know what was happening to Bruce and Dick, if the Justice League saved them, but it did me no good to watch.

I closed my eyes and tried to block out the images of Dick getting shot by the taser. I breathed in shakily and wrapped my arms around my diminutive form trying to pry out warmth from my thin pajamas, perhaps not the best clothes to wear in the brisk air of Gotham. I was going to kill Bruce and Dick if... when they get home for making me worry.

I took a hesitant step into the freezing water, but I didn't feel it, I wasn't allowing myself to get wet. After a few more steps I was waste deep and I fell back into the pitch black water. I sunk down slowly looking up as the dim stars slowly faded as I fell into the sand. I breathed in deep, practically forcing myself to breath in the water but all that came in was air, never get used to that trick.

I must have stayed there for an hour before I came to a realization that Bruce may actually be home and found that I wasn't there, and I would miss may chance to kill him. I reluctantly pushed up on the bottom, breaking the surface of the water. I decided that maybe I shouldn't use the door, way to obvious. I propelled myself to below ocean view balcony and created a water spiral that pushed me up and over, landing with a roll.

It was almost morning, the sun was just starting to lighten the sky as waves of light carrested the ocean. I watched in content as the sky turned multicolored and the previously pitch black water gained an orange hue. Sighing I entered my room and flopped unceremoniously onto the giant bed.

As the door opened softly my head lulled to the side, better not be Bruce or I might bot be able to refrain myself from reprimanding him.

"I know your awake" Bruce spoke softly. I closed my eyes tight and tried not to comment anything sarcastic, but I failed.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear." I mumbled, trying not to show my face. Feeling the bed dip down on the side and I peeked one eye open. Bruce was there and he had a relieved look on his, guess he really thought I was gone.

"Where were you" he spoke softly with just a hint of worry. I closed my eyes and sighed, I couldn't decide if I should tell him that I know or about anything, but I really saw no point in keeping it a secret. I would just tell him that I know, and maybe of my powers over dreams, It would make it a whole lot easier to help him.

"That question resolves on where you were Bruce" I answered sitting up and looking him in the eye." Do know who my favorite superhero is Bruce?" He eyes me suspiciously before replying.

"Superman?" He asked, knowing where this was heading, I shook my head.

"It's Batman" He looked like a deer in headlights for a moment before covering it up with look of curiosity."Batman is my favorite hero, for many reasons" I continued."He helps the people of one of the worst cities in the world." I started moving forward. "Though he doesn't have powers, he could take down all the Justice League without weapons, because he relies on his wit and his skills and not just some fancy gadget or power." Tears brimmed the edges of my eyes."And he is stupid" it was time to rant." He gets himself in dangerous situations not even caring about if he's giving the people who care about him a heart attack. He keeps everything inside, hides himself from the world behind a caw and a mask void of emotion. I swear if he ever gets killed I'm going drag him back to the world of the living by his hair and forcefully beat him with a spoon" I wasn't even sure what I was saying anymore as I crushed him in a hug.

He winced slightly as I released, I totally forgot his cuts and bruises." Sorry... those wounds probably don't feel good, Hows Dick" I asked concern lacing my tone.

"He's fine, just took a nasty hit" he said angrily but it turned to curiosity as he faced me."How long have you known?" I smirked.

"Lets just say I knew who you were before you knew who I was" I looked down into my lap.

"That seems like a reasonable answer, but how did you know?" I didn't really know how to reply, should I tell him? We made eye contact and I decided, yes. I trust him to not misuse the enforcement, he is one of the only people I will ever trust.

"I know things... and can do things that people would call abnormal." I explained slowly, hoping he would catch my drift, and he did because he's Batman.

"You have powers" he guessed and I nodded. He didn't answer. Maybe I shouldn't have told him, he was totally going to throw me out or.. or worse.

Then he did something I didn't expect, he smiled. It wasn't a sadistic gleam like Gabe, it was a heart warming smile, it made me guilty.

"I..I should have told you sooner I'm sorry, I was just....just worried you wouldn't react... well." I broke down in sobs as he rapped me in a soft hug.

"The tip off to the Justice League... was that you?" I chocked a laugh.

"Yes and I was very mysterious" He chuckled softly and I froze. I just made Batman laugh, my life goal has been completed.

"How about we get some breakfast?" I glared at him sternly.

"You Mr. are going to bed, you got captured by an evil clown and have been up for at least a day straight." He started to protest."Being knocked out doesn't count either." I glared harsher but he was unfazed, dang Bats and their ability glare. We had a glare battle for a second, him obviously winning, before he remembered that he was arguing with a child.

"I'm not going to rest, I'm trained in sleep deprivation." He reasoned, and I smirked. Time to test out the power that Annabeth told me about.

"Stop being so stubborn," I let my eyes water."I .. I just don't want to see you h..hurt," I buried my head in his side and patted my back awkwardly. Subtlety I reached my hands to his head and pressed 2 fingers to his temple. I concentrated on the feeling that you get when your tired, or when your mom wakes you up in the morning to go to school. As he fell forward onto me and I felt a wave of dizziness and my head swarmed. Note to self: Powers suck.

I still felt like I was hit on the head by a frying pan but I was victorious. I crawled out of bed and covered the sleeping ninja up with my comforter.   
He looked more peaceful asleep, the deep etched scowl lines were softened, there was no worry asleep, well unless your a REM user.

"Goodnight" I spoke softly

I changed into a Batman T-shirt and black jeans, because I just had to. When Alfred took me shopping, because none of the residents of the manor wear size x small clothing, I got 7 Batman T-shirts just to see the amused expression on faces. When Alfred questioned on why I had 7 Batman T-shirts, I replied with a because I'm Batman, he let the subject drop.

"Leo set a timer for 4 hours in this room to wake Bruce up" I ordered my AI.

"Affirmative sir, now can I go back to sleep mode, it's 6am in the morning" I rolled my eyes, why did I teach him to be sassy.

Making my way down the maze of corridors once more I reentered the kitchen to get some well needed food. Thankfully Alfred was already in the kitchen cooking eggs, got to love Alfred the ninja butler.

"Good morning master Perseus, where is master Bruce?" The best person in the world asked.

"He was stubborn about it, but he is currently sleeping in my bed." I answered smugly. Alfred looked almost shocked, but nothing could shock him.

"How did you manage that?"

"I have my ways Alfred, oh I have my ways." Then I remembered something ."Alfred how is Dick, Bruce told me he got hurt." I asked concerned.

"He's fine in and in room resting, perhaps you would like to take him some food." I smiled.

"Sure"

He handed me an omelet with a side of bacon and my food was soon forgotten, poor food. Making my way up the spiral staircase I entered the room of another sleeping ninja, lots of ninjas in this house, no fair I want to be a ninja too. His room was more homey than mine, he had tan walls that matched the rest of the house and a black bed with a red comforter. The room was bathed in a warm glow that came from a single chandelier in the middle of the ceiling.

Dick was curled up adorably in the middle of his bed, but I saw something wrong when he started mumbling. All the sudden he trashed and bolted upright in bed. I quickly set the plate of food on his bed side table and rushed to him, did he have a nightmare?

"Hey are you alright?" I asked. He seemed a little dazed but answered with a soft yes. "Was it a nightmare?" He nodded. I wanted to know more but I knew that he probably didn't want to talk about it. "Yeah I get those to.. I brought you breakfast if you up to eating" I gave him the plate."Well if you need anything else just ask... uh see you later" I started to shuffle out.

"Wait" I twirled around to see Dick staring at me apologetically. "Um... thanks" I smiled warmly.

"I hope you feel better, electricity doesn't feel very pleasant." with that I turned back around smirking, leaving a suspicious preteen in my wake. Got to love those sleeping ninjas.


	7. Hello Darkness My New Friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nico!!!

he sound of metal against metal rang out through the completely dark landscape as the blond haired child swung his sword down onto mine. I was getting better, but he had more experience. You could tell by the way you watched him fight like the sword was an extension of his arm, and the from the fluidity of each move as if he had used it all his life.

Yes I was getting better, but he was also holding back, letting me get the upper hand sometimes. It took all my effort and skill just to find weakness in his guard, and even then he was intentionally letting me in his defence.

I slashed with my sword but he blocked it, never wasting strength with brute force because let's face it he was only 9, but redirecting it in ways that made me lose my balance. He came in with a offensive attack to my abdomen, because he was basically fending off my small attacks, letting me practice my maneuvers, and I blocked it like he showed me. He smiled proudly at my progress but while I was distracted he did an advanced disarming move that I could barely follow and my sword went flying. As the sword clattered on the ground the blond proceed to twist around me and place his blade on the skin of my throat.

The sharp cold metal bit into my skin but I didn't care, I couldn't feel pain in my REM dream anyway. I sighed as he released his hold and I spun around to meet his gaze. His expression didn't hold any disappointment from me getting distracted though, that's what I like about Luke, he focuses on what you can do to improve not what you do wrong.

"Can you tell me what you did wrong?" He asked me in a teacher tone, I hated the teacher tone. Though he was only a year older than me, he was mature beyond his age. He said that descendants tended to mature faster because of the death sentence on their heads, but it still freaked me out that he was so adult like.

"Sorry I got distracted" I apologized bowing my head in shame. The blond smiled warmly and shook his head.

"It's OK, most descendants have ADHD and get distracted all the time, it's in our blood. We have it because we notice more details, make more observations, or mind runs faster than normal people. Just focus on the observations that are important." He suggested."Also good job with that block, your getting better." He remarked proudly.

"Thank you....for everything and training me and.... being my friend." I looked down sadly but instantly brightened."Um.... could you teach me that disarming technique, it looked awesome." I gushed and he smiled.

"Yeah sure it's a little advanced but it's one of my favorites."

I got into a fighting stance and came at him with my sword and he quickly blocked the blow and practically flung it out of my hands with the move. He smirked at my exited expression as he showed me the steps to the maneuver, moving my sword into different positions against his. He came at me this time and I blocked the blow to my neck and twisted his blade it the way he showed me. I totally didn't squeal, boys don't squeal, stop judging me!

"Well done, most people don't get it on the first try. " He praised and I smiled sheepishly. " Sorry that I have to go, I have a... meeting with someone, but keep practicing, I'll be here tomorrow." I narrowed my eyes at his sudden outburst but just sighed, I would never figure him out, it was frustrating.

His presence soon left my mind and I found myself once against alone in a dark barren landscape. I sighed to myself as I changed the dream to one of my favorites, the night sky over an ocean. Laying back in the sand I was lost in the beauty of the memory. The sky and the ocean, so vast, so full of life, it was poetic how they met on the horizon. The stars shone brightly and with no source of light nearby they had different hues of purple and green all reflecting off the ocean, tinting it with light.

Being in this memory always calmed me, but brought me sadness, this is where my mom met my dad. She brought me as much as she could relishing the memory of my father. Who knew a little cabin on Montauk beach could bring such an internal battle within the mind. Without even realising it the words slipped out of my mouth.

"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." Those words were so familiar they could have been etched into the back of my skull. A quote by Edgar Allan Poe, my favorite, with a meaning of sadness, and wonder intertwined.

For the rest of the dream I stared up at the sky lost in thought, trying to interpret the meaning of the collection of words

I soon left my sleep as the sun came over the horizon, flushing out the remnants of the darkness. I stared up at the white ceiling of my room, it wasn't even comparable to the night sky.

I went through my normal routine, so hacking into the league's system and spying on them then getting dressed in Batman merchandise. Making my way downstairs I thought about the talk me and Bruce had. He had only told Dick about them, with my permission, which I'm grateful for. I thought he would have loosened the reins a little, but if anything he kept me closer, I don't know if that's a bad thing.

Things were still very awkward, not much had changed, only they knew some of my secrets. I was still fine though, I was used to being alone and not very social, I was to different from the kids my age. That's probably why when the subject of school came up at the breakfast table, an attempt by Bruce to get us to connect more, I shrunk down in my seat. Them being the great detectives they are noticed.

"Hey Percy, what grade are you in." I shrunk down into my seat further.

"What grade am I in? Or what grade should I be in?" I asked rhetorically."because if it's the first one, I'm in 2nd grade, but according to a placement test I took a year ago I should be a freshman in highschool." If it was impossible to shrink down into my seat further, I did the impossible.

"That's great, you in I could be in the same grade." Dick disclosed with a smirk."Hopefully your good at math" It was my turn to smirk, I was basically only good at math and science because of my dyslexia, but I liked literature anyways.

"Try me"

"Square root of 17,956"

"134"

"Area of a circle that has the diameter of 57"

"2550.465"

"Find x in fx+6=gx-4"

"X=-10/f-g"

"The string theory"

"The theory by Albert Einstein on how particles interact through space" I smiled in victory as Dick pouted."You feeling truaght?" I inquired and he grinned at me once more.

"I'm feeling quite astrous now" Bruce smiled warmly at our antics, that's right we got Batman to smile.

"Maybe we should get you to take a placement test tomorrow in preparation for the school year." Bruce remarked. I took a shy bite of my biscuits and gravy, almost shuddering at the thought of constant social interaction and strict teachers.

"Yay school." I grunted without glee."That's bloody brilliant." All that came out of my mouth at this point was sarcasm and a failed attempt at a British accent, Alfred would be ashamed.

"Why don't we do something today?" Bruce suggested, changing the subject.

"Like what?" I inquired more excited. I never got to do fun things, my mom had to work for most of the day to pull the weight of the family, Gabe sure wasn't going to. I involuntarily shuddered at the thought of that asshat psychopathic drunk.

"We could go to the movies" Dick suggested. "I think Avengers just came out" My eyes lit up immediately, I had never been to the movies before. Bruce smiled once more.

After practically jumping up and down for 10 hours, testing the limits of my ADHD, we loaded up in a more modest GMC and headed out of the garage. The manor had its own viewing room and they could buy any movie they want to, but where's the fun in that. Sure it was much easier for us to just sit in the manor's private theater and not have to disguise ourselves so we don't get swarmed in public, but I think that defeats the purpose of developing people skills.

"Loki is definitely the best." I argued as we exited. There was no arguing with me about Loki he was the best character.

"Black Widow is the best by far." He retorted."And I don't know if I should be worried that you are rooting for a villain." I sighed heavily, I thought he was supposed to be smart.

"Time to rant." I muttered before taking a deep breath. "Ok 1, Loki's character is the underdog which makes him more relatable to the majority of people. 2, all he wanted was to be out of the shadow of his brother, who's friends made front of him behind his back, making him a bit bitter. 3, his father lied to him about his heritage which made him doubt his worth thinking he was a monster and making him confused." I had to stop for a breath before continuing the rant."4, he was obviously being mind controlled by the Mad Titan that showed at the end of the movie like he controlled other people with the scepter, if anyone didn't notice before, Loki's eyes are green not blue. And 5, he's adorable and mischievous." My eyes widened, I didn't mean to say that last bit. "And yeah" I awkwardly rubbed the back of my neck and looked down at the floor.

All there was after my rant was silence, never mess with my Loki, yes that's right MY Loki.

"Black Widow is still awesome." I facepalmed and held my hands up in surrender.

"I'm not saying you can't like Black Widow, your untitled to your opinion. Just don't force your opinion onto me or you will never have an opinion again." I warned with a miniature glare that had no effect once so ever, I need Bruce to teach me how to glare.

"Was that a threat?" He questioned with a taunting smirk.

"Yes" We fell into an awkward silence.

I ran to our car in the parking lot but stopped right in my tracks as a tingling feel made it's way to the back of my neck. It wasn't necessarily fear but unease, like I felt that something bad was going to happen. A sharp pain pierced my skull, and black spots danced in my vision. I doubled losing lost my balance and I barely rendered Dick and Bruce rushing to my side. Images flashed in my mind so fast I barely saw them but stopped on one scene so abruptly a wave of dizziness made my vision swarm.

I heard the whimpering before I saw the scene. It was a small boy around my age who was curled in on himself, only illuminated by the yellow light that shined through the alleyway. He wore an extremely oversized aviators jacket and black jeans that contrasted sharply against his pale skin and had a mop of unruly pitch black hair. The whimpers of the boy, as much as it unnerved me, wasn't the worst part, it was that a pool of blood was slowly seeping out from where he laid.

I gasped for air as I was released from my vision, almost in hysterics. I felt almost drawn to the boy, like I knew where he was, then the information hit me, I did know where he was.

I stood up so fast I almost fell over again but broke into a run anyway, I had to save him. I rendered the surprised vigilantes start to chase after me trying to get me to stop but I ran through the streets of Gotham as if my life depended on it. Hands grabbed my shoulders and started to pull me back but I thrashed trying to get away, he wasn't dead yet I had to save him.

At this point I was in tears just trying to get Bruce to release me but I didn't hear anything he was saying, I only heard the small boys whimpers, and I only saw his bleeding form.

"Let me go" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "He's not dead yet, I have to save him." I sobbed hysterically. The grip of the arms loosened only a bit, but it was enough, I wormed my way out if his grasp and bolted.

I didn't know where I was going, but I felt where he was and my mind dragged my body as if it knew every twist and turn in Gotham. My muscles burned and my lungs were about to give out, but I didn't register anything but the panic and the feeling like I was being killed slowly and painfully inside. I couldn't let him die, I didn't even know who he was, but I felt with every minute passing that something was shattering, breaking, and I needed to find it be for it was lost forever. I couldn't let the boy be lost, not like my mom, I didn't even know his name, but the feeling of him slowly dying in pain was shattering something alright. What was this I was feeling?

The cold wind of Gotham's night ripped around me and cold tears began to stain my cheeks as I ran into an alleyway that was covered in darkness. The temperature in the alleyway was at least three times colder than the street and the shadows danced violently as if they were screaming.

My head filled with the screams of the shadows, screams of pure terror and anguish, but I couldn't tell who the screams were meant for. I burst through the wall of darkness that swirled around me and made me shiver in fear, but I didn't feel any fear of the darkness, the scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls. I spotted the boys whimpering figure and immediately knelt down at his side. I could feel the mix of fear heartbreak and anger rolling off him in waves, but I didn't care, I had to get him help.

I pulled his curled up form into my lap holding him and putting pressure on his wound, trying to retain the warmth that he was quickly losing in the ally. Alerting Bruce of my position with Leo, I watched the violent darkness relax and recede a little, I didn't know if that was a good thing. The boy looked so fragile and drained that it almost broke me, I couldn't stand the things that he was feeling, he shouldn't be in such anguish.

Bruce pulled up in the GMC at the entrance of the ally and quickly got out with Dick on his tail. He stood almost frozen in shock as he looked at the scene but got over it when I looked at him desperately.

"Please help him" It came out in a whimper but I didn't even care about showing how weak I was. He came forward and took the boy out of my arms and I didn't object. I tried to stand up as well but I found myself collapsed back on the cold concrete. Dick helped me into the car and I sat next to the passed out boy, why was everything numb?

I always analyzed everything around me and made connections about what thing meant, but I could only focus on the details of the emotions I felt. Everything was numb, because I could only feel the emotions coming off the dying boy, I felt ha is pain and now I couldn't feel anything else.

I didn't speak for the rest of the night, but I refused to leave the boys side. I told them that they could go home and that I could handle myself but they refused to leave me here alone, something about me being to young. He was in surgery for 4 hours and I don't even no how but I'm pretty sure that I moved the least I had moved in my life.

Now seated by his side at the bedside chair watching over him I looked down sadly at his sleeping form. I let my head fall back against the headrest of the chair as I entered his mind, it might be a bit evasive, but I could not give 2 waffles on what was socially acceptable.

Entering his mind wasn't too hard, it was just the awkward moment when I would have to explain what happened that I was hesitant about. I decided right away that I didn't like how cold his mind was or that his screams could barely be heard over the roaring wind. The boy sat in the middle of the chaos, his knees drawn up to his chest and all you could see of his head was the black unruly hair that framed his face.

I calmly walked over and sat down in front of him as if the storm didn't bother me at all, but it did, it unnerved me that his mind was so chaotic and desolate. We sat in silence, the wind still ripping around violently until he began to sob. I pulled him into a hug and he began to cry onto my shoulder. I didn't mind but I needed answers, what happened?

"It's so strange that Autumn is so beautiful, yet everything is dieing." I spoke softly. The boy looked up at me with an expression in his seemingly pure black eyes that I can't describe in one word. It was sort of like hope but with more confusion and sadness, I couldn't put it into words.

"Percy" I stated as I stuck my hand out. He just stared at it for a moment before taking it and answering.

"Nico, my name is Nico." I smiled warmly.

"What happened?" I questioned almost worried tone laced my voice. His eyes darkened and he closed them tightly letting a single tear roll down his face.

"The monsters came." It hit me like a brick, the bo... no Nico had shadows surrounding him that almost solidified, he had monsters after him, he may be a descendant. "The monsters took her... she tried to fight them off but they got her." He sobbed into my shoulder once more and I pulled him into a protective hug.

"Your ok now, the monsters are gone." I assured softly as I rubbed circles into his back. "It's sad how most people can't see the beauty in darkness when blinded by the light." I looked down at him sadly. "You will never get rid of the darkness inside of you, but I have a feeling that you will conquer it someday, so don't worry. You might only see beauty in life or only see the peace of death, but these opinions are biased, only in darkness can you see the stars and only in death can you see the brightness of you life." The wind calmed down to gentle breeze and just held him until he stopped shaking.

Sometimes the darkness is beautiful.

Sometimes the darkness is cold.

Sometimes the only thing that people are scared of is being in the darkness forever.


	8. You Just Got Burned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't even important, I don't know why this is included.

ou know what I like about Bruce, he stays out of your business. Ha, I actually almost said that with a straight face. No Bruce is so far up in your business that he breaks the meaning of secret, but he does it but stalking you from afar, not asking you like a normal person. Living with them for a week now, I think that I'm starting to get used to Bruce knowing everything about everyone. I just wish he knew everything about me, then I wouldn't have to argue why I should be a bat.

Today was the reincarnation of boredom after I gladly killed it the day before, but that changed. How can you possibly be bored when your fuming, try it it's impossible. No I was currently not bored, but was screaming obscenities into your pillow any better? Yes, yes it was.

I don't even know how the conversation turned argument started, but it ended with me feeling a bit guilty and equal parts angry. I didn't even say that I wanted to be a bat, I might have hinted it though. I also definitely didn't say that I wanted to be in the field, I offered more of a backup watch over type, but he still flipped. I know he didn't mean to insult my worth, but that's what it felt like.

I ended my temper tantrum and stared up at the ceiling, ok now I was bored. I was going the enter REM, but something stopped me, a feeling that something was going to happen.

I stared concerned into the darkening corner of the room, it was if the shadows were being drawn together in a black mass. After a moment of the shadows converging the seemingly imploded and spread out, dissipating. I was confusing for a second, not because of the magic trick, but because of what the shadows left behind.

"That's new" I stated with a shrug. The dark haired child rolled his eyes at me but kept smiling.

"It's one of my powers." He remarked cheerfully. "I call it shadow travel."

"So is that the only reason you came into my room without knocking, to show me your stalker powers?." I questioned with a smirk. "Cause you know that you'll never be a better stalker than me."

"I am not a stalker." Nico stated crossing his arms.

"And that's why you just appeared in my room." I challenged. "No never mind, your not a stalker, your a pedophile. I'm ashamed of you Mr. Di Angelo, appearing in young children's rooms." He rolled his eyes once more.

"Your impossible."

"You realised you just said I'm possible, right." He sighed again, to tired to argue with me and flopped down onto my bed.

"Hey but at least I made it here, I kept going to China." That was the last straw, I doubled over in laughter. "Hey its not funny, the first time I landed in a Chinese restaurant in some ladies won ton soup." He remarked defensively. I doubled over in laughter again.

"I'm sorry, but your really not helping your case." He sighed, defeated and turned his head to look at me.

"So what's up." I shrugged once more with a frown.

"Nothing much I'm just angry at Bruce." He looked at me worried before replying.

"I just don't think that Bruce is good at communication, he's not used to explaining to people why, only ordering them not to." I smiled warmly at the 7 year old.

"Well aren't you a ball of wisdom." I fell backwards into a laying position. "And now your my best friend because you cured my boredom."

"Yes that temper tantrum was a very good show, but boring nonetheless."

"You are a stalker."

"Yes, yes I am." We were quiet for a second before my brilliant mind thought of something that would cure my boredom.

"Can you travel other people with you?" He looked up at me with a devilish smirk.

"Planning and sneaking out are we?" He answered with a question.

"Yes"

"Good" he took my hand and furrowed his eyes in concentration. Shadows began to seep up from everywhere, drawing around us slowly moving into a solidifying form. They began to twirl violently around us before they crashed down like a wave of darkness.

I kept my eyes closed in fear as cold wind ripped around us and my grip tightened on the 7 year old's arm. Through the darkness I could hear screams and the shadows and violent wind tugged at my clothing as if trying to drag my form away.

Despite the feeling I was going to die, in the seconds we were traveling, it was almost fun. He should have probably should put up a warning sign before shadow traveling with people,like.

'Do Not Ride This If  
-You have any heart conditions  
-Are afraid of the dark  
-Are afraid of dying   
-Gets nauseous  
-Are a Fetus

...........You should probably not ride this at all.'

I have no idea why I thought this was fun, because I am all these things.

We arrived with a downward gust of wind that gave you a lasting chill and a hint of fear etched in your mind. I opened my eyes to find a grinning Nico, which was sort of creepy, and we were in the alleyway where I found him.

"Awesome" I remarked after a moment of silence. "Creepy... but awesome."

He grabbed my hand and pulled me out onto the streets of Gotham. To be honest Gotham wasn't as desolate during the day as it is at night, but still kind of creepy. Shadows danced across the streets as the car streamed by only illuminated by the lowering sun through an overcast sky.

He continued to pull me through the streets until we stopped at an abandoned building. I gave Nico a side glance of curiosity as he pushed me into the alley beside the building and proceeded to climb the fire escape. Hesitantly I followed after the shadow boy as he gestured for me to enter and flung himself through a broken window.

"Nico where are we?" I question after repeating his actions and landing on an metal platform. Inside the building was a large warehouse with concrete flooring and boxes everywhere.

"This is where I have been living for the past month." I eyed him sadly knowing that he had nowhere else to go. Gotham's orphanages were no better than standing in the street for 2 hours waiting to get hit by a car. If he were to get adopted, given it's Gotham, he may not survive.

"I can bring you supplies to make this place more.... livable, if you want."

"Yeah that would be nice." He answered wistfully, before jolting. "Someone's near, be quiet and get down." He warned. I wondered how he always did that, sense someone, I could do it but it intense concentration.

Footsteps rang out through the space just moments later and it was followed by voices.

"See KF not all abandoned warehouses in Gotham are taken over by crime bosses." The familiar voice of Robin AKA my cousin rang out.

"Yeah but it looks like someone was living here." The second person who I assume was Kid Flash concluded suspiciously while pick up an apple core off the floor. He made his way to a collection of boxes that held up a small blanket and furrowed his eyebrows. "Or is living here."

" Oh get traught, if someone lives here there not here now." I just realised. Now that Nico was hiding us both in the shadows. His face was furrowed in concentration and sweat was condensed around his temple.

"I'm hungry." KF remarked after a moment of silence. I could almost see Robin roll his eyes behind his domino mask.

"You're always hungry." He replied exasperated. After sticking his hand in his tool belt he pulled out a protein bar and gave it to the speedster. The Mini Flash dramatically gasped and snatched the bar out of his hands and zipped around excitedly.

"I knew you cared." He cried in a fake relieved voice as he ate the bar in about three bites.

"About you? That's a maybe. What I do care about is my sanity if I have to listen to you talk about food for the rest of the day." The speedster put a hand to his chest in fake hurt.

" I need some ice for my burns, you are a very cruel one." He faked dying and the speedster that was now laying on the ground put a hand to the light, fell limp and lulled his head to the side. The caped crusader just sighed in response.

"Come on KF, Bats needs me for a mission." The speedster, for dramatic purposes of course, used his speed to throw the preteen over his shoulder and zipped out of the warehouse.

I sighed in relief as they left, what would they do if they found us here, more importantly what would Bruce do.

I looked over to Nico and saw him now collapsed in exhaustion from overuse of his powers. Rushing over to his side, I saw that he was unconscious. Great, that's awesome. Did you sense my sarcasm, because if you didn't than you have problems.

"Well that's spifen." Why did I speak in a British accent? Nobody knows. I dramatically collapsed next to the passed out child and thought of a way to get home in the dark. When I thought of none that wouldn't get me grounded for life, I slammed my head quite painfully on to the metal platform. "Well we didn't think this through now did we?" Who was I talking to? Well that would be myself. Of course I talk to myself, sometimes I need awesome advice.

I heard a groan from beside me and the pale child looked at me with half lidded eyes.

"Just sleep, I'll stay here tonight." The exhausted child didn't argue and he fell limp once more. After sending Bruce a text that I would be home in the morning and that he shouldn't worry, which was useless because he would anyways. I retrieved the blanket from the boxes downstairs and draped it over the both of us. I thought about how much trouble I was going to be in as my breaths evened out and I succumbed to the darkness of a dreamless sleep.

The next morning after making sure Nico was ok and buying him breakfast, I reluctantly returned to the manor. Batman being Batman, you would think he would have found me, or put a tracker on me. And your extremely correct, and I totally didn't hack into them to give a false location, and how could he track me to the warehouse if there were no cameras and we basically teleported. So in hindsight that text that I was ok and I would be home in the morning was about as much of a solution as sleeping during a Freddy Krueger rampage.

To say that Bruce was mad would be so much of and understatement that it literally hurts. As I walked into the manor I waited for the barrage of angry questions with my eyes averted to the floor. Sure enough, moments later Bruce came up to me and I tensed, but did something I didn't expect. He rapped me in a strong hug, me flinching reflexively on contact, and sighed in relief.

"Where were you?" He questioned as he pulled away and I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly.

"Do I have to answer that?" I asked trying to avoid his gaze. I couldn't exactly tell him that my friend could control the shadows and teleported me to where he was living but passed out after using to much of his powers. Could I? I mean sure he would believe it because I'm sure he's seen things much wielder, but then he might go after Nico, I couldn't tell him about my friends. But you can't exactly lie to Batman ethier, can you?

"Yes" he replied gruffly and I sighed, realising all the tension in my shoulders.

"Lets just say a friend was in trouble and I had to help him out." He eyed me suspiciously.

"What would this trouble be." He asked slowly but explosively.

"He kind of passed out when I was hanging out with him, I couldn't exactly leave him when he was passed out. What kind of friend would I be?" He sighed and picked the bridge of his nose but just that action made me flinch again.

"Go to your room, your grounded for 2 days." I just shrugged accepting my fate, it's not like I had a life anyways. "And Percy," I spun around slowly. "I'm not Gabe." I looked down as bad memories started to brim the surface.

"I know your not, it's just..... reflex." I shrugged and he eyed me sadly.

"Just... please refrain from sneaking out."

"I can't promise anything." With that I turned away and ran up the stairs into my room. I know you don't have to mean to make someone worry for them to worry, but I still felt a bit guilty. Sure I broke rules all the time with Gabe but that was because he didn't care about me. Bruce actually cares, gets worried if I'm not home, and know I can't separate the rights and wrongs of my actions.

But no amount of guilt can change to past.

And no amount of worrying can change the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	9. Monsters Inside Us Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here comes the action, the tragedy.
> 
> The DEATH.

All I heard was the sound of my heartbeat. It rang in my ears with each pound, getting more rapid and thunderous with each passing moment as I bolted from the partially destroyed manor.

Tear cascaded down my features, blurring my vision, but I couldn't stop them. She warned me, she said I had to be vigilant, and I let my guard down. My chest constricted painfully as I gasped for air, the cold wind of Gotham burning my throat. I didn't stop running though. That's what I was currently doing, running from my problems.

Maybe I was running, but I couldn't think there, I couldn't breath, the chaos constricted my lungs. I needed to calm down, even now the longer I ran away from the manor, the more exhausted and winded I became, the more I could breath.

After what seemed like hours of torturous running, my legs gave out beneath me and I fell onto the cold grass. I looked around in fear of my surroundings, _since when was_ _I_ _in the woods?_ It was the dead of night and everything was silent. It wasn't the looming ominous looking trees that draped over the soggy ground, looming over me consuming any light that might have been there that I was afraid of. It wasn't even the deathly gloom that was covered in darkness, pitch black surroundings that made it impossible to see anything. No, it was the silence, everything was silent. The only thing you could hear was the constant thunderous pound of my heartbeat and my heavy pants gasping for breath.

She told me what the creatures were, what they could do, but it was so different than what I could ever expect. The amount of panic and terror that I felt could never have been anticipated, _I_ _still felt the traces of fear._ I took shaky breaths shuddering at the memories. I curled up into a ball trying to retain any warmth that I had left but there wasn't much to scavenge from the hours before when the cold wind of Gotham burned into my skin.

My small form that was shaking and shivering, couldn't take much more, to much had already been committed.   
I couldn't drown but I was drowning, drowning in my nightmares.  
\---FLASHBACK---

_It started out with my normal routine, you know wearing Batman merchandise and stalking the Justice Leagues actions. I had become a sort of a non-official stalker for Bruce, spying on people who he thought were suspicious and people he wanted to keep an eye on. I know he didn't want to evolve me in anything, to keep me locked away and safe, but I didn't really give him much of a choice. If you haven't noticed, we Wayne's are very stubborn and I can proudly say that I out stubborn-ed him, don't know if that's a good thing though._

_I know that the hero game is dangerous, and that Bruce didn't want me to be subject to it's faults but I can honestly say that no one knows about me. I mean the media knows that Bruce has a nephew living with him, but in the superhero and villain world, all I am is an informant, a stalker. The thing is, I'm perfectly ok with that title, 'world's best stalker', I mean it's fitting._

_I always wanted to be a hero, but I am perfectly fine with being in the sidelines. In truth, I just wanted to feel like I had a place. Dick and Bruce are mega awesome super ninjas, and im.... me. Sure I have powers, but ones I barely know how to use, and maybe I can use a sword because of training with Luke, but I'm still a novice. The only thing I am good for is being a super stalker, so I'll take the title, I was helping the heroes be heroes._

_All in all I was ok with life in the Batman world, but I wish that the Bruce world would die 100 times over. I would rather be kidnapped by the joker, be beaten by his crowbar as he says bad puns about smiling and then killed in the most cliché way possible, than be at this Gala full of pretentious, conceited wealthy individuals. I have many colorful words that I could use, but let's keep this PG and replace all the multicolored words with foods. Ready. Set. Go._

_This Gala can go mashed potato in a hole somewhere while cranberry sorbate leaks out of all it openings. It's so gram cracker that I want to cream cheese it in the face while my subconscious pies it. All the people here, save for a few, are all lemonades and they can go cumquat themselves. See we're all PG here._

_The worst part of this place would probably be that it was very... formal, meaning that you had to wear a suit. Let's get this straight, me and ties don't mix. These dress shoes are uncomfortable almost pass the point of being unbearable. I know I'm complaining an excessive amount but this place is a piece of minotaur dung._

_"Hey Percy," Dick greeted suddenly, pulling me out of my thoughts. He was moving through the crowd of rich people with expertise, and came in front of where I was standing, which was a corner in the back of the castle like room. He was soon flanked by 2 redheads, who I instantly recognised, who looked about as happy to be here as I was. "These are my friends Roy and Wally." I smiled, he probably thinks I don't know who they are, time to have some fun._

_"Yes Wallace Rudolph West, 15, lives in Central city with uncle, Barry Allen, and goes to Keystone high school, retains above a C average except in science where you have yet to get below an A. You also don't like keeping things in your locker since 5 dollars was stolen from it, but in reality you gave it to a girl named Linda to try and impressive her, than forgot about it." I finished leaving a gaping speedster in my wake then turned to the archer._

_"And you Roy William Harper Jr, 17, lives in Star city with adoptive parent, Oliver Queen, is privately tutored by a man named Alfonso. Has quite the rep in anger management issues if I might say, and has great skills in archery." I smirked as I got an irritated reaction out of the older teen._

_"I told you, he knows everything, he's our stalker." Dick stated with a grin and I rolled my eyes at him._

_"Your whole family is full of stalkers." Wally concluded getting over his dumbfounded state._

_"You can say_ _that_ _again." Roy seconded._

_"It was nice meeting you_ _guys_ _too, now have a nice night." I started to walk away but Dick grabbed my shoulder and stopped me." What?" I asked a little irritated._

_"That wasn't the only reason I came over." I sighed and gave him a 'go_ _on_ _' look._ _"We need your help."_  
\---FLASHBACK OVER---

Everything was numb.

I couldn't see, my vision was darkened to the point where everything was a blank haze. I couldn't feel any panic though, everything was lost. I couldn't feel the burn in my throat as I took slow shallow breaths of the icy air. All feeling was lost, but I still felt the warm hands lift me up. Me being severely underweight, I was practically a rag doll, but these hands lifted me up gently and with care.

I was completely out of it, I could have been kidnapped, killed or rescued and I wouldn't be able to comprehend what was happening. I had a feeling, not a thought, a feeling that I was safe. I was to groggy to think, but I could still feel, even if I lost all feeling physically.

Warmth.

It was warm, these hands that carried me gently to a soft warm place, so unlike the forest floor. Warmth was blooming in my chest like a fire growing and spreading through my veins, warmth.

Pain.

I could feel the pain now, striking in my limbs like jolts of lightning shocking my nerves. As the warmth came, the pain came with it, but the immense relief that I could feel again, it was worth it. My throat still burned like it was frozen and my breath was in short pants, but it was becoming more bearable.

Opening my eyes, I could see, my vision no longer a haze of blackness. My surroundings were full of grayish colors, with hues of green and red, before my vision cleared. It was a room, like my old one before I came to the manor, but with green walls and a red comforter that surrounded me.

"You should be out like that in the cold." A feminine voice rang out through the small room. I swiveled my head slowly to the left where a woman sat at in a wheelchair;beside the bed. Her lips pursed, almost trying to stop herself from reprimanding me. She was around 40, but you couldn't really tell, her short black choppy hair framed the the woman's face that adorned vetiminese features and skin. The woman wore a white top under a blue blazer, and it seemed to almost give color to her pitch black eyes.

"Why did you save me?" I felt myself asking, with just a tad of fear etched in my voice. I could have asked many other questions, where was I? Who are you? But I was confused, people aren't this nice in gotham, they would be more likely to steal off your dead body.

She looked down into her lap for a moment, contemplating the question, before answering. "Lets just say I've been trying to do better." She answered with regret in her tone, not regret of saving me though, regret of something she had done. Sighing she pulled the covers up more on my body that still donned the shredded suit and slash marks. "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly happened."

"I... I don't really know if I can explain it, it's a long story." She looked crestfallen for a moment before covering it up with her reprimanding expression.

"Well you need to sleep, we will talk in the morning." I stopped her before she wheeled out of the room with my arm. I closed my eyes tight trying to block out the massive headache that was forming before opening them back up and looking her in the eyes.

"Thank you... for saving me, most people in Gotham would just let me die." I gushed with as much sincerity that I could muster.

"Your welcome, now sleep." I found myself doing just that, I fell asleep in a strange ladies house to the throbbing in the back of my skull and the warmth of the red comforter.

\---FLASHBACK---

_"You want me to stalk Lex Luther." I summed up. I was ok with that deal, I have been keeping an eye on him anyway for suspicious activity._

_"Not stalk." Dick corrected."keeping a close eye on." I rolled my eyes at his attempt to make this situation socially acceptable." There's a difference."_

_"No... there really isn't." I sighed and rubbed my temples, guess im going to give them secret information. "I'm guessing Bats doesn't know your investigating this subject or you would already know what's going on. I have been 'watching' Luther for weeks and know the information you seek."_

_"Well what are you waiting for, tell us." A certain speedster demanded and I gave him a cold glare that could almost rival Dick's, I had been practicing._

_"Tell me Wallace do you know of the League of Shadows?" I questioned slightly irritated._

_"Yeah.... what about them?" He asked and I smirked knowingly._

_"That League is quite out of yours, the reason I was asked to withhold this information, especially from you three, is you would make the foolish decision to investigate this matter further." I was reprimanding them now, it would have been a hilarious having an 8 year old tell at you if I didn't put the warning edge to my voice._

_"Why are they holding things from us?" Wallys voice held an murderous tone. "Do they not trust us?" I grit my teeth in annoyance as the Dick and Roy started to agree and rant about the unfairness of their life. Oh no, they are not getting the upper hand on this argument._

_"Shut up!" I yelled with force and a glare, they immediately stopped talking. "Can you not see the kind of detrimental effects you could cause if you were to investigate. The reason bats is using me is because I can see them without them seeing me. If they knew that we know what there plans are then we would no longer know them." I took a deep and my voice lowered to a whisper. "They do trust you, with their lives, but it's being taken care of. Not everyone needs to know everything, because I know too much that puts a target on my head if anyone knew who I was." I sighed and closed my eyes, I shouldn't have yelled._

_"I...I guess your right." I nodded in satisfaction at the archer and the other 2 were smart enough to keep their mouth closed._

_"We shouldn't even be talking here, we could be traced." I rubbed my eyes as I internally repeated 'stupid'. "If you really want to know, ask Bats if I can tell you. Until then my hands are tied." With that I walked back to the party from where they pulled me into the garden. Dicks friends weren't that bad, but I wish they could see the bigger picture._

\---FLASHBACK OVER---

In my dreams, I just stared at my sleeping form thinking about the earlier events. It wasn't really my fault, but I still felt like I was responsible.

All I could think about is that I should have told him, about the monsters, the powers, all of it. I led him to believe I was just a normal person, with powers, I thought that maybe if he didn't know, he would be safe. All I did was put him, Dick and Alfred in more danger, I should have never gone to live with them. Now here I was in some strangers house, watching myself sleep, but they were safe.

Then there was the point that they could take care of themselves....but would I really want to be a burden. I mean the look on his face when he found out why that... thing attacked, because of me, it almost made want to just break down.

I watched in disinterest as a blond girl entered the room slicing through my thoughts. She looked like a more Caucasian version of the woman that came in before with vibrant wavy blond hair that went down the her lower back. She stood over the bed where I laid sleeping with an unreadable expression, almost angry.

"Artemis" the familiar voice of the woman rang out through the hallway and the blond snapped her head up to the door.

"What." The girl, Artemis, replied through gritted teeth.

"What are you doing?" The woman asked unfazed by her defensive tone. The blond shrugged in response a continued to look at me, almost glaring.

"Why did you bring him here?" Artemis asked suddenly, vexed. "He could be dangerous....a test from dad."

"Would your father really be so low as to use a young child." The woman retorted, with an expression full of something like hope.

"He had no qualms in using me." The girl shot back darkly. I didn't know what she was talking about, but it seemed like she had some problems with her dad. "Jade was right, in this family, it's every girl for herself. And he." She jabbed a finger a my sleeping form. "Could be a danger to whatever is left of this family." The woman gave her daughter a stern motherly face that screamed 'stop arguing with me and do what I say'.

I got a little irritated that she was judging me before she had even talked to me, but then I felt a little guilty. In a way she was right, I wasn't a danger in the way she thought, but they could still suffer consequences of having me there.

Before I felt even worse about this situation, I retreated back into my subconscious and drifted through wherever it would take me. I couldn't bring myself to watch Dick and Bruce, risk watching them disown me and call me a dangerous freak. That leaves me to the dark abyss of my mind, to tired to think of a person to stalk or a memory that won't cause me to break down.

That's all I was now, wandering lost. I was lost in the world, the missing child. All I was in the world was the nephew to Bruce Wayne, the poor child who lost his mother to an abusive stepfather, and now lives with his famous uncle. I wasn't even needed, more of a burden on everyone who knows me. I was a lost soul in a field of lost souls, a child forced out of a childhood. I was no one.

But I could be someone.

I don't want a price on my head or a million people to know my name, but I want, no need for someone to listen to me, to hear my voice out of millions of voices. In the old greek myths, there was a place called the fields of asphodel. These fields contained the lost souls, souls that didn't use there voice, didn't do enough good to go to elysium, didn't have enough evil in there souls to go to punishment.

I don't have to be known I just have to use my voice.

I need to be heard before I can never speak again.

Will anyone even listen?


	10. Monsters Inside Us Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could say something profound, but then again, this chapter is sad so...

I felt a pull.

Not like someone physically grabbing me, no one could do that except Annabeth. It was more of a feeling, think someone trying to pull your mind out if your head, but less painful. I followed the feeling, the pull, I already knew what this was. It was the same thing I always got dragged into.

The scene swirled around me violently and the forceful colored movements made my head swarm. When the images stabilized, I didn't know what to think. It was dark, to dark. The only light came from the partially covered windows, bathing the room and a dull yellow glow.

The room itself was strange, no not the room, the room was a normal broken down apartment. It had a sickly shade of green peeling paint and a brown rugged floor that looked so filthy that it may have previously white. A normal Gotham apartment, but not a normal Gotham resident inside.

In the image a tall man stood facing the window with a ridged controlled posture. He wore a golden cloak, not yellow, golden and it reflected the filtered light coming through to where it shined in the darkness, glowing. His face was concealed by a hood that made shadows dance around the bottom half of his features.

He looked like he should be in a castle and ruling a country with that outfit, yet he was in a crummy apartment in an unnamed place. The man continued to stare at the curtained window as I observed him, his posture a practiced ridged stance like he never relaxed.

The unnamed man slowly turned his form around in my direction, he stared at me like he knew I was there. It was a bit unnerving, and by I 'a bit' I mean a crap ton. The man had golden eyes, not light brown, but golden with flakes of a darker gold. It was as if someone had melted down the metal and poured them into molds, the golden eyes. These eyes were strange indeed, but unnerving. His gazed pierced through you, evil eyes that seemed to hold malicious intent. They held a sadistic gleam like he was waiting for me to arrive, it chilled me to the bone.

My breath quickened and you could see the fear in my wide eyes. This guy was looking me right in the eye, he knew I was there. He smirked almost as sadisticly as his eyes when I my face morphed into panic.

"I know your there Perseus." He mused and his smile widened as I gulped. His voice was deep almost like Batman's but less gravelly, I was smooth and held a twinge of amusement from my state. It may have held amusement but it also streamed dark intent and had a creepy tint. His voice sent shivers down my spine.

I was frozen for a second before my brilliant mind broke out of its frozen state and resorted to mean remarks and snarky comebacks.

"Get the dip Asslock." I replied sending the man a glare. He chuckled darkly and I froze at the sound, he knew that he was getting to me. I wouldn't let him.

"You are a lot like your father." The man inquired with the same twisted humor. "Always fought with his words, all bark and no bite." Anger boiled inside me the longer he taunted me, but that just made him grin wider. "Good thing he was muzzled when I killed the bitch." He smirked widely at my shocked expression.

I-it was this man who killed my father. He was standing in front of me.... coming closer. He walked to the place in front of where I stood and loomed over my form that was frozen in fear with glee. I tensed even more as he leaned down my level on the left side of my face.

"We would sure hate it if history repeated itself." He spoke the warning in my ear and I shivered in fear as his foul breath hit my neck. I only let out one snarky snarky comment before high tailing it out of my mind.

"I would hate it if you were to not get a breath mint, I guess we're even." I retorted spitting in his face. "See you never creepy bastard, now go crawl in a ditch and die." Totally PG.

\---FLASHBACK---

" _Percy." Bruce called to me as I was climbing the spiral staircase with exhaustion. I turn my head and gave him a pleading 'what' look, he was interrupted my internal rant about rich people parties. "I need to talk to you." He continued and I shot him an uneasy glance._

_"What's up." I asked popping the 'p', making my way down the stairs. Bruce sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly, I got the feeling that this was going to be awkward._

_"Look." he closed his eyes than glanced up in almost nervousness. "I was investigating your mothers murder." I fought back a wince. "and I found a money trail of 15000 $ form an unknown source given to your stepdad." My breath hitched and I stared at him lost in thought for a for moments, he was not suggesting what I thought he was suggesting._

_Someone paid Gabe to do the deed. It was so much harder to understand why he would just kill her without motive, other than her screaming at him. I could never get over the fact that he did it without hesitation, with precision, like it was planned, but not by Gabe, that drunk couldn't plan out eating a taco. Now my uncle was telling me that someone else was paying Gabe to do it, to kill her, to break me. I didn't feel any real justice when Gabe went to prison, it just brushed passed me, like it didnt even matter if he was in prison or not, I didn't feel any Justice. All I felt was unease and empty, like I was duller, forced to mature in mourning. Maybe if I could get revenge, I had to get revenge._

_"Was there any tips offs?" I questioned, my voice suddenly horse. He nodded a reached into his_ _pocket_ _, pulling out a piece of paper that had instructions. There was a name_ _signed_ _at the bottom, only one word._

_"Kronos?"_

\---FLASHBACK OVER---

Bolting up in bed, my breath came on short pants, gasping for air. I tried to comprehend what just happened, what happened?

Spots danced in my vision from my panting as I tried to form any coherent thought. I tried to remember where I was, what happened, WHAT IN THE CUMQUAT JUST HAPPENED. Collapsing back on to the mattress, I breathed deeply, not fully comprehending my surroundings.

When I finally looked around the room, it remembered where I was, and I almost burst out in tears. Everything was coming to fast, it was hit after hit, and right when you think your going to wake up the nightmare drags you back. Was it really to much to ask for one fluid dream?

I made a mask of a face void of emotion, I couldn't let anyone see I was this weak. I just layed there for what had to be almost 3 hours, to afraid to think. If I thought, feelings would compromise my impeccable logic, the thoughts would turn destructive. So unable to sleep, unable to think, I layed there for a while.

"Would you like some breakfast?" A voice suddenly echoed through the room. I jumped a bit at the sudden sound after hours of silence, and chided myself, I should have seen her come in. She looked at me expectantly and I felt my cheeks burn in slight embarrassment.

"Um-m sure I guess... but you don't have to... I-i wouldn't want to intrude." I stuttered nervously, my mask that was void of emotion broke as my quivering voice answered. She motioned for me to follow her and I got off slowly from the bed. My muscles ached sorely from my running, but I ignored the burn as much as I could as I followed the woman out the door.

I huddled into myself making me as small as possible when I realised I was still in a unrecognizable suit that was torn to shreds, claw marks all over my body. I tried to cover up the holes in my, what used to be white shirt. St least they didn't change me, that would be worse.

When the smell of bacon and eggs wafted into my nostrils my stomach growled involuntary. My cheeks burned once more as the woman looked back at me with a smile.

I sat down as the woman put a plate in front of me, looking her for permission to eat, because I have manners like a normal person. She nodded and smiled, I dug in quite literally.

"Artemis, breakfast is ready." The woman called, startling me for a second but I brushed it off.

"So...." I drawed out. We sat in awkward silence for a moment until her daughter walked in from the living room.

"Lets start it off with names, I guess." The blond suggested and stretched her hand out. "I'm Artemis Crock." I shook her hand hesitantly.

I had an internal battle. On one hand I could tell them who I was and risk them finding out about my other life. But shouldn't they have earned my trust when they saved me? And could they really trace my normal self back to Batman?

"Percy, Percy jackson." I replied still shaking her hand. Crock. I knew that name, a file off of bats computer, one of the people a was going to 'watch'. I continued to pick at my eggs hungrily. We sat in awkward silence for a moment before the blond cleared her throat.

"When's the last time you ate?" she asked with emotion that was almost like worry, but more defensive and rude, like a teenager should be. I shrugged in response, how long had it been? The last time I ate was 2 hours before the party which was at least a day ago.

"Depends on what day it is."I answered avoiding eye contact. They would probably be staring at me awkwardly, i don't like awkwardness.

"it's the 17th of August." the mom clarified, oh, that means i have not eaten in 2 days. We went silent again before they started to drill me with questions, practically interrogating me but in a more gentle fashion.

"Ok i have to know what happened, because you look like you were mauled by a bear." Artemis questioned. i found myself having an internal battle again, ok i could under no circumstances tell them about my powers, or the monster. time to make up a feasible story.

"I ran away." My quiet voice broke through the silence, but It sounded strained. " I don't really know what happened after that, probably several things."My voice quivered slightly and I tried desperately to keep my composure. "The streets of Gotham don't exactly leave much to imagination." Artemis snorted softly at my failed attempt at humor.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes with my hands knowing where I could go next. The question is will these very nice, but nosy, people let me leave.

"I need to leave." I stated, looking up to the 2 woman who wore shocked expressions.

"Like hell we're going to let you leave after the condition you came in here with." The mother nearly shouted. I looked at them worriedly, if I stayed any longer they would be in danger.

"If I stay here for too long I would be putting you in danger." I gushed with as much force that an 8 year old can muster.

"Danger from what?"Artemis questioned.

"I can't tell you." I gritted my teeth in something like annoyance mixed with panic. "I know that I'll be fine, I have a friend that will let me crash at his place."

"Then wouldn't you be putting your friend in danger?" The blonde shot back.

"My friend can take care of himself." I nearly shouted, not able to contain my annoyance. I didn't want to argue with her, they did save my life after all, but I had to get them to let me leave.

"Oh so your saying that I can't take care of myself?" I breathed in deeply trying to regain my composure.

"I did not mean those words in that fashion, though you can interpret it in anyway you want. I don't wish to intrude in your life any further so I must thank you and take my leave." I got up off the stool and made a beeline for the window.

Still in my clothes torn to shreds I opened it quickly to find myself 3 stories up, this should be fun. Before jumping out of it I turned back to the 2 and gave them brief hugs.

"I must thank you for saving me, I am forever in your gratitude." I turned to the mother and looked her in the eye with as much sincerity as I could muster. "And you Paula Crock can do better, don't let your past taint you future Huntress."

With that I ran to the ledge and jumped, flipping mid air 2 times before landing with a well placed roll. As soon as my feet hit the ground I took off down the alleyway, making a beeline for Nico's 'house', leaving 2 gapping females in my wake.

\---FLASHBACK---

_I sat despondent on the couch, it was way pass the time I intended to go to sleep, but sleep now evaded me like the plague. How could one sleep when they receive information on if the world really does hate you. No I couldn't sleep if I was forcefully knocked out by my own powers, I refused._

_I called it a sleepless night, others would call it being in shock. I was in shock then, that might fit better. How was one not to be in shock when your uncle tells you that your psychopathic asshat of a stepfather who killed your mom, was paid off to do so._

_With my mind running a marathon, trying to actually comprehend the information. Just one name, Kronos. In the Greek myths he was the king Titan, Lord of time and the ultimate evil monarch. What message was he trying to write with that name? Oh hey look at me i'm evil, or... no never mind._

_I was getting nowhere, we had a name, but it led us down a field of Greek myths and tales. Sighing I ran my fingers through my hair, maybe tomorrow I could get insight from Annabeth, who now wants to be called Grey Owl for some reason, but I doubt she would know much. I could ask Luke about my theory about ti.... never mind he probably won't know anything._

_It was almost morning when my eyes finally felt heavy like a large comforter was settled atop them. My system was heavily protesting on staying up so long. My mind was dulled and my vision was darkening as I slowly closed my eyes and slumped against the leather._

_It was only moments later when the smell hit my nostrils. It was a pungent odor that smelled like a mixture iron and burning flesh. My eyes instantly shot open when a large crash echoed through the manor._

_With my adrenaline suddenly pumping through my system I shot up off the couch while the first beams of sunlight burst through the windows. My muscles ached in protest, as I had not used them in hours, and I looked around franticly. Running to the kitchen door I looked inside to see a sight that could make someone go insane._

_I knew what this was, and my heart pounded against my chest in denial. I front of me was the stuff of nightmares._

_It had red skin that seemed to be severely damaged and burnt like it had just walked straight out of a burning building, still on fire. It toward over me with its slightly feminine form, eyes like a scope locking on it target. The odor got stronger as 'she' hissed at me, fangs dripping down shaper than knife below her bottom lip. Her severely scarred face twisted in what could be called a grin, or it could be called an attempt at looking very terrifying. Did I say attempt? Sorry that is a mistake, she was very terrifying, she took home all the awards._

_Suddenly the creature lunged at me full force, I barely had time to scramble away before she hit the ground where I was a millisecond before. I backed away slowly and defensively, and discretely pull the bronze pen out of my pocket. The creature dropped down into a crouch and growled at me from the other side of the marble counter top._

_At this point I was almost shaking, I didn't know what to do. Sure I trained with Luke on how to defend myself, but I didn't know what kind of creature this was, and it was a lot different than being there._

_My gut twisted, almost gagging at the putrid smell emanating off the creature, then she spoke. All the creature made was noises like scratching and gurgling, it some what resembled a scream, but I could understand what it was saying._

_"Ha, descendant filth, this will be almost too easy." The creature screeched, taking a leap and landing in the place I had once more just moved from._

_"You know, I take offense to that." I replied in the same tongue, surprising myself. The creature halted in her next attack, but only_ _for_ _a second, before vaulting_ _up_ _at_ _crashing_ _down and punching a hole in the floor of_ _where_ _I_ _just dodged. Finally uncapping riptide, the double sided blade appeared my hands taking the creature by surprise._

_She just seemed to get angry that_ _I_ _was dodging all of her previous attacks and lunged at me, retracting long vicious claws that bit me in the stomach. I rolled out of the way and_ _dubbed_ _over in pain. The creature_ _took_ _this opportunities to rake_ _her_ _claws harshly against_ _my_ _back._

_I screamed in pain as the cuts burned, bleeding like crazy. I turned to the creature with a harsh pained glare, and through gritted teeth_ _came_ _up with a retort._

_"You_ _wouldn't like_ _me when_ _I'm_ _angry." I_ _know_ _unoriginal to every hulk fan out there, but it was an alien,_ _I_ _only_ _got_ _this card a couple of_ _times_ _in my life._

_Holding my bleeding_ _stomach_ _in_ _pain_ _I_ _charged her with my sword yelling out a cry and charged her with my sword. She_ _dodged_ _the blow and twisted behind me,_ _proceeding_ _to claw me in the_ _lower_ _back. She let out_ _something_ _like a laugh before I twirled around furiously slashing at_ _her_ _with my sword. I caught_ _her_ _once in the arm, but didn't get much time to celebrate as_ _I_ _found_ _myself_ _flying back into wall._

_I groaned in pain as_ _I_ _slid down the wall,_ _collapsing_ _on the the ground. It grabbed me by my neck_ _and_ _slammed me against the wall once more, my boned exploded with pain and spots danced along my vision._ _After_ _slamming into the wall again and punching me full force in the gut she let me collapse back to the ground looming over me._

_She dropped down to my level and pulled her hand back to stab me in the chest with her claws and_ _I_ _closed my eyes in fear. I_ _let_ _out some sort of a whimper waiting for the blow that never came._

_I_ _opened_ _my eyes after a few seconds to see a batarang stick out of the creature right shoulder, the one it_ _was_ _about to_ _stab me with. I could have_ _cried_ _in relief as Batman dropped down from...somewhere and walked over to me._

_He punched the creature in the face and knocked it to the floor before coming over to me and check over my form with anger. He growled under his breath when he examined my cuts. I_ _was_ _a_ _little_ _unsure of what was going to happen,_ _was_ _he mad at me_ _for_ _bringing the creature here, he was going to ship me_ _off_ _to the next foster home as soon as_ _possible_ _,_ _I_ _was sure._

_Suddenly a moment caught my_ _eye_ _of the creature moving_ _its arm to a remote..... oh crap_

_"Bats!" I yelled out in warning jumping up as it pressed a cliché red button. There was only so many_ _things_ _that could be and_ _I_ _doubt it was the_ _TV_ _remote._

_All_ _I_ _remembered was expanding my arms and jumping in_ _front_ _of Batman, then a tug in my gut. Everything happened so fast,_ _I_ _didn't_ _realise what happened until_ _I_ _was sitting up dazed 20 feet away from the burned_ _remains of_ _the_ _kitchen. Everything else was burning on the side that the creatures charred remains laid. Then there was a sphere of water blocking the_ _rest_ _of the manor from the explosion._

_Bats was crouched in a defensive_ _stance_ _next to wear I leaped in front of him. He looked_ _confused_ _at most but it quickly turned to shock a he saw the water force field. He_ _looked_ _around almost panicking until he set his gaze upon me, fire burning in his eyes._

_I didn't give him a chance to catch up and interrogate me. I turned tail and ran. Not looking back once._

_I wanted to run away and never look back._

_But we all know that_ _running_ _is never the answer._


	11. Lost And Found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you still reading this? Good cause it gets better.
> 
> Time for some emotion!

"That's not the point Percy!" A furious Nico shouted. I was getting a little upset that he didn't understand my actions.

"What's the point then!" I yelled back, waving my arms around in the air. Nico took a deep breath to calm himself before he answered.

"The point Percy, is that you don't run from your problems." I began to interrupt but he cut me off with a glare. Dam where did he learn to glare like that. "Even if they were going to ship you off to the next orphanage, which they wouldn't even think about from what you've told me about them, you still need to talk to them." He finished his rant and I looked down in shame.

I wanted to go back and apologize for everything I kept from them, but at the same time I didn't. I was scared, no terrified that some of the only people that love me and actually care if I'm ok, reject me. My stomach twisted up into knots when I thought of going back, being scorned, I wouldn't have any family left.

Nico put a hand on my shoulder and I stared at him with pain visible in my watery eyes. It wasn't pain from the multiple injuries that I had forgotten about, it wasn't the numbness of my previously frost bitten limbs. It was the mental pain, I didn't know if I could take it if they rejected me.

"Percy.... you owe them at least a talk, they took you in and took care of you, they still care about you." The tears that were welded up in my eyes finally rushed down my face as he pulled me into a hug.

"But what i-" he cut me off.

"If what Percy, you can't let something that might happen stop you from making the right decision." I pulled away and plopped down onto the metal platform that hung below the window, above the rest of the warehouse. My feet hung of the platform, swinging aimlessly as I stared down into my lap.

"What made you run in the first place?" Nico questioned, taking a seat next to me on the platform. I shrugged in response.

"Maybe the author was running out of ideas." I voiced and he groaned.

"We should have never went to see Deadpool." I snorted at the memory, we had to sneak into the movie theater using Nico's powers because we the clerk wouldn't sell tickets to a rated R movie to 8 year old's. News flash clerk, one walk down Crime Alley and your rated R movie seems like it's PG.

"Shut up yellow box, I will not do such a thing in public." Nico burst out laughing.

"Well if you get to be Deadpool I'm Spider-Man." I scrunch my eyebrows at him.

"Why?"

"Come on Spider-Man awesome, he may not have a healing ability but he has spidey sense and great agility and strength."

"Well you can't be Spider-Man because I ship Spideypool." He stared at me blankly.

"What is that?" I rolled my eyes at him, of course he wouldn't know what that was, he was a normal person.

"Well a ship is when you imagine 2 people together and things like Spideypool is the ship name that allows you to identify the people in the ship." I explained trying not to laugh at Nico's expression.

"Is that why you yelled Birdflash a couple of days ago?" I smirked and nodded, i was a super stalker.

"That's also why you can't be Spider-Man, it would be too weird, I think you would make a better Negasonic Teenage Warhead." Nico pushed me in the arm.

"Ha ha very funny." He rolled his eyes then his expression turned to anger. "Dang it Percy, how on earth did you change the subject so easily." He groaned and fell back onto the platform.

"It's a gift." I answered following suit to his actions.

"You can stay here as long as you want, you gave me a mattress I am forever in your debt, but you need to go back." I closed my eyes in submission, I knew he was right.

"I know I'm just scared."

"I'm here if you need me Percy."

"I know. I know." Closing my eyes I scooted back into the middle of the platform and curled up on the cold metal. Soon we were both at rest, me on the floor, him on the pre-mentioned mattress.

The next morning was...stressful, to say the least. Nico practically forced me out the window and as soon as we climbed down the fire escape he pulled me deeper into ally.

"Where are we going?" I glanced around nervously, finding it hard to trust the boys smirk. He turned around a pointed deeper into the ally. Shadows danced along the walls, even in the day light, what little light that shined through the overcast sky was drowned out by gigantic brick and metal buildings.

"Were heading deeper into the city, I know these alleyways like the back of my hand." He stated and pulled me deeper into the connecting paths, drenched in darkness.

We continued to make several turns through the maze of alleyways and gradually the building startled to get taller. Suddenly he pulled me left and we exited onto the streets... at crime alley.

"Ok i give up, what are we doing?" I found myself asking. He just dragged me through about a mile of ally systems to come to one of the most notoriously known crime places.

"Going to my old house." I stared at him as if he said I need to smell a high school boys gym locker.

"You live in crime alley?" I asked motioning around franticly, eyes wide with disbelief. He just crossed his arms and smirked, which looked creepy.

"Yes, not all of us live in a billionaire's house."

"You know i didn't mean it like that, but we're like fish out here." His smirk grew wider at my words.

"Speak for yourself, I'm a big fish, and I have no problems with the sharks. They know better than to mess with me." I groaned and raked my fingers through my hair.

"Please don't tell me your a ninja too." The boy in question just sighed.

He continued to jump up onto the fire escape and climb the ladder and what choice did I have but to follow. The rusted metal groaned under our weight, but held it and we came to a floor where we stopped.

He made his way to a shattered window, glass littered all over the metal platform and glinting in what light the place provided. The boy hesitated for just a microsecond and a look of unease passed over his face, but his usual defensive expression returned a moment later, no trace it was ever there.

He entered the apartment and I soon followed carefully maneuvering around the broken glass. I was hit with a familiar sight when I popped my head through. The place had a sickly green shade of peeling paint and a brown rugged floor that looked like it was vacuumed every 15 years.

I moved through the window and my skin brushed onto the discarded think worn out blanket that used to cover it... so familiar.

My blood ran cold as I remembered the dream, my heart quickened slightly remembering his golden eyes. I walked all the way through the window not meeting Nico's eyes, he would see right through me.

He turned the corner leaving me standing awkwardly in the middle of the room of my literal nightmares. The boy returned only moments later with a rucksack full of cloths and a wad of money he was stuffing into the pockets of his black jeans. He was nervously twisting a ring on his finger that looked like a skull with red eyes and readjusted the sack on his shoulder.

He looked down and I frowned when I saw a slightly crumpled photo clutched in his pale hand.

"Can I see?" He tensed defensively for a moment, but relaxed and nodded, still not meeting my eyes. I took a stance beside him and peered over his shoulder.

In the picture a tan Italian toned girl stood smiling next to a younger Nico. She wore a brown bulky jacket that reached her knees, hiding her legs covered in black jeans. On top of her head was a green floppy cap that covered her black straight hair glistening in the sun. Her smile radiated so much warmth that it made the apartment with peeling paint look homey.

"Bianca?" The young boy nodded and looked to the side still not meeting my eyes. "We should leave this place may bring back... memories." He snorted and finally looked me in the eyes, they held pain, longing.

"Come on let's get out of here." He motion for me to follow and I began to, but was hit with a wave of dizziness.

My head swarmed and throbbed painfully, I doubled over breathing heavily. My vision went in and out of focus as I was pulled into a vision, flashing scenes so quickly I couldn't make them out. Darkness consumed my vision completely and I could vaguely feel Nico in the apartment shaking me and screaming at me in a worried tone, but it all seemed fuzzy as my vision blurred out and I was pulled into REM.

The image suddenly stopped at a familiar face. It was of Bruce typing away furiously on the batcomputer, the blue light the only thing illuminating his almost impassive face. You could see the underlying worry and grief that flashed in his eyes which were bloodshot.

After a moment of silence he finally leaned back in his chair with hopeful features as the computer ran a program, his eyes darting back and forth between numbers. He slammed his fist on the counter as his face lit up in a red hue, the computer showed an 'Access Denied' message.

"I can't track his AI and facial recognition software didn't pick up any traces." He explained in a steely voice to the worried ninja butler who was now behind ninja.

"We'll find him master Bruce, we'll find him." They both looked up to the computer once more, their faces bathed in the red light, before the scene swirled around me once more.

After series of images catched my eye, flash in and out slow enough for me to just catch the contents of the image but not to fully comprehend. All I saw was blood and tragedy, faces of anguish and loss. Then everything stopped on one image, one scene that played out smoothly.

It was a man running, a man being chased. He had wind swept raven black hair and sharp masculine futures that were flushed in exhaustion. His sea green eyes were wide with fear as he streamed out of a tall building, weaving through crowds of people.

He wore a black leather jacket and loose fitting black jeans, he looked about 27 but was fit and muscular, yet slim and agile. I watched as he sprinted into an ally, skillfully avoiding people. He collapsed against the wall holding his side which you could see the tinge of red that stained his hand. He was breathing heavily, gasping for breath as he fell to the floor.

He made a slow movement to retrieve an item in his pocket, his now red stained hand shaking slightly. He pulled out a now blood coated pen and it hit me. Those features that seemed to familiar, the hair, the eyes, I almost screamed at the thought, this was Poseidon, my father.

He removed the cap off the writing utensil and it turned into riptide, still breathing heavily, he tightened his grip on the sword.

"All bark and no bite." I familiar deep smooth voice rang out through the darkness of the ally. My dad and I flinched at the same time from the sadistic nature that the sound held.

The man walked out of the shadows, now donning a white business suit that contrasted sharply against his tan skin. His hands were coated in vibrant blood, staining the sleeves of his suit. He held a golden double sided scythe in his right hand that matched the color of his hair that was greased back.

The man's feral grin widened as my father tried to move away back on to the street, clawing at the concrete leaving a trail of blood.

Why was I seeing this? I screamed out into my subconscious for it to stop, it wouldn't stop. It wasn't like it could close my eyes, I couldn't focus somewhere else. I was trapped there screaming obscenities as the golden man stalked up to where my father lay still clawing at the ground.

"You shouldn't have done that Don, you know what happens when you go against the Titan's." My father tried to scoot away but was stopped by a black combat boot firmly planted on his chest. The boot pressed down hard and the man underneath screamed in pain.

The man took his sword and put it to my father's neck, his eyes were wide with fear, but they held defiance. The man bent down to where his face was above the green eyed male, his eyes shining in sadistic glee.

"Any last words, old friend?" The man growled and my stomach twisted, I felt the bile come up into my throat. I couldn't watch this is had to leave.

"Go to hell Kronos." He spat the blood forming in his mouth and peering through his teeth into the tan features of the sneering man and my heart nearly stopped. It was almost the same thing I had done to him in my dreams. "I heard they needed more rapists and pretentious bastards."

The man, Kronos growled and I screamed into the void all of the obscenities possible but no one heard them, I couldn't change anything. I watched in horror as he moved his blade through Poseidon's neck with a sickening slice.

I fell back and gasped as my vision cleared, trying to breath. Why couldn't I breath? It was like my throat closed up, all I could do was look around franticly, trying to take a breath. My vision started to blur as pressure built up behind my eyes and tears welded up, not being able to stop them.

Nico was in front of me shaking me, panicking out of my nonresponsive form, but I didn't register anything but the bile that was rising in my throat and the sickening sound of the vengeful decapitation.

My ears were ringing and I saw Nico was shouting but I couldn't hear it, it's like my senses were jumbled. My head pounded painfully and I closed my eyes to block out the light.

Everything was quiet for a moment before I felt something quite painful on my cheek. A large smack echoed across the room and my cheek stung. I shot up into a sitting position breathing heavily, putting a hand to my cheek.

I felt Nico wrap me up in a hug as I got out of my dazed state. I stared at the wall for a moment while Nico released his hold and snapped fingers in front of my face

"What?... oh w-we s-should prob-bably get out of here." I stated my voice quivering. I wrapped my arms around myself trying not to shake.

"What happened?" He asked concerned, I avoided his eyes.

"N-nothing." I answered defensively, my voice vulnerable.

"You freaking collapsed and your eyes turned white Percy, that didn't look like nothing." He shouted and I growled.

"I said nothing happened." My voice was a little harsher and Nico dropped his eyes. "Can-can we just get out of here?" I asked almost whispering. Nico nodded and took my hand, leading me to the window.

"You can go home." I stated after moving through the alley maze, my gaze dropped to the floor. "You probably don't want to be there when I give the bascom my location, he may...interrogate you."

Nico stopped to look at me and then smiled widely.

"I'll be here, but hiding in the shadows, you'll need the moral support. You are dealing with daddy Bats after all." I snorted and looked up confused.

"Daddy bats?" I questioned, Nico just shrugged. I shook my head and sighed.

"Leo alert the Batcomputer of my location please." I waited for a second before I heard the voice of my AI.

"Affirmative, and finally sir, he's been trying to hack me so many times it was getting annoying." I laughed slightly and leaned against the brick wall that was drenched in darkness, yet it being mid day. Nico had already disappeared into the shadows and I waited, waited for the reprimanding that was too come.

What couldn't have been 30 minutes later the batmobile pulled up, it sleek black design and beautiful curves starkly contrasting to the brick walls. In my position against the wall, my knees to my chest and me curled up as tight as I could be.

I must have looked like crap. Not showering in 3 days, torn suit and scratched up skin, wild hair, I must have looked like a feral child. This fact didn't stop daddy bats, I'm keeping that name thank you very much Di Angelo, from pulling me into a tight hug.

I tensed in his hold but relaxed into his warm suit. The cold suit made me really how cold I was. My flushed faced laid against his shoulder as he picked me up, carrying me to the batmobile.

I looked up at him with big eyes, wet with tears, almost begging him not to ask why I ran, not to ask what happened, not to ask what I was, but that was wishful thinking.

"Just tell me." his voice rang out through the vehicle as the engine hummed to life, his voice softer than the bat voice, but still harsh. I made me flinch and curl up on myself tighter.

"If I tell you, you won't want me anymore." I whimpered, tears brimming my eyes. I was so tired of the lies and the reticent lifestyle, I was just tired.

"Percy, only I can decide that, it's not up to you." He shot back in a steely calm but strangely soft voice. I was so tired of the secrets and withdrawn personality. I closed my eyes tight trying to stop the tears, they wouldn't cease.

"Do you know a meta by the name of storm?" I asked my voice quivering and hoarse. Bats nodded after a moment and answered.

"Yes, the supervillain Storm, an operative in the Titan gang, what does he have to do anything?" I shot him a broken glare, the red tint of the window making my features harsher as the tall buildings of Gotham loomed over us. I looked away and closed my eyes tight, letting the tears fall down the corners.

"He was killed by a man by the name of Kronos." Bruce came to a realization of what I was talking about and almost lost focus of the road. I looked him in the eyes and he drove faster, already entering the cave. "And he is my father."

He looked at me strangely, then nodded, just nodded. He motioned for me to continue, ok.

"He passed down an ancient alien bloodline, don't know which species, but we're called descendants." I glanced up at him nervously but his face still remained impassive. "I have the power to control water in all its forms and use REM, which is complicated."

"The creature, what was it?" He asked voice gruff and I looked down, the sudden memory popping up and I tried desperately to keep it at bay. He stopped the car at what I guess you could call a parking lot and jumped out, me soon fluidly following suit.

"That is the first encounter with them, but I am told that they are bounty hunters. You have to understand that, to the ones who the bloodline is passed down from, we're nothing but vermin, weak." I almost whispered the last part and wrapped my arms around my form protectively, trying to stop shaking. Bruce took his caw of and stared at me, taking in my grungy appearance, I felt uncomfortable under his gaze.

"Sorry about the kitchen." I apologized, wincing at the awkwardness, but in truth I was terrified he would be too angry, shipping me off to an orphanage or taking his anger out another way.  
"I'd understand I-if you don't want me anymore, I'm, I just-" My rambling was cut short as a hand was laid on my shoulder and I looked up, my eyes showed pain in ways that cannot be faked.

"Percy, I'm not mad. Well I am mad, but not because of the monster, that was not your fault. I'm mad because you ran, you never run." I nodded my lip quivering.

"I.... I'm sorry, I guess I was just acting purely on my thoughts." I looked down, not wanting to meet his eyes. "I should probably go get my injury checked out." I muttered as an after thought and Bruce nodded. I turned around to leave but Bruce caught my arm and I turned to face him.

"It's August 18 Percy, happy 9th birthday."

Losing something you love is unbearable.

Mabye the only way to know you love something is to lose it first.

But be careful....

You might not get it back.

 

 


	12. The Art Of Not Following Orders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe, here come rebellious Percy.

had been 'watching' a business deal go down between Lex Luthor and the League of Shadows. After stalking Luther's actions for weeks, watching him meet with some of the most notorious villains, I found that he was holding a meeting in a secret base. Well not so secret anymore.

I was getting a bit confused, all he was talking about was something called the light. I always mentally recorded his actions, everyone's actions, and they hadn't ever mentioned the topic of the light. What was it? A weapon?

"Luther" The leader of the League of Shadows interrupted harshly, cutting short the CEO's plan of action, something about venom. His face was impassive but his eyes burned in annoyance. "Why do you need to waste are resources to create this venom?"

The CEO just sighed in response like he was talking to a child. He walked away from the master assassin and faced right where my consciousness was placed. He couldn't see me of course, he was a full mortal, but the crazed look in his eyes that could rival the joker's unnerved me.

"Oh Ra's" The man inquired looking back over his shoulder with a small unsettling smile. " Well need to enhance our distraction." The man let out a small chuckle as he walked to the bolted door.

"Soon they will see the light." My eyes mentally narrowed at the man, could he get anymore creepy? I watched as he left the metal room out of the door and Ra's soon followed suit, stepping into the shadows.

I retreated from the room and followed Luther down the long metal corridor. His footsteps echoed loudly against the concrete floor with every stride and he had a smirk on his face like he was about to rule the world, which would be horrible. He continued to glide into a room through another bolted door and took a seat at what could be called a desk, but was more like a high tech holographic slab.

He put his hands under the surface of the hologram and lifted his hands up. As if it was an actual material substance, the hologram lifted up with his hands and viewed a calling screen.

A scowl etched into Luther's features as he answered the call a man popped up onto the screen. The man had brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, sorry I mean man-tail, and wore a large signature white lab coat over a red shirt and brown pants. The surrounding area was lit up by fluorescent light, but was still relatively dark and dank. The place seemed to be carved out of the ground, rock formations hung from the roof and metal platforms hung from the sides about 20 feet in the air.

"Dr. Desmond, what is your update?" Luther asked gruffly and the man through the video call, Dr Desmond straightened his spine like he was trying to look more presentable.

"Project Kr is fully completed, I need authorization to continue with phase 2." The doctor disclosed trying to look confident, but failing, badly.

"Proceed with phase 2, test the behavior of the weapon this time, we don't need another failure." Luther responded harshly to the doctor and he nodded almost shrinking at the CEO'S words.

"Understood sir phase 2 will be completed over the course of a week."  Luther swiped his hand through the call with disinterest. The malevolent man sighed and rubbed his eyes in vexation.

"Computer, show me asset E348 Delta" His voice rang out through the metal room strenuously. The holographic screen pulled back and it showed a white room with someone screaming on the table.

My blood ran cold.

Curly blond hair.

Grey eyes.

Sharp youthful features.

On the table was none other than Annabeth Chase.

"Let me go!" She screamed and thrashed around on the black patted table. She was strapped to it by several overlaying padded ropes. She wore her usual grey dress with swirls and a black cloak. Her usual pendant hung from her neck along with an inhibitor collar and this time she sported a black domino mask, but you could still see the trepidation in her features.

I watched with wide fearful eyes as men in white lab coats came in and approached her with an unseen object. She just thrashed hard and cried out in angst as they got near.

"Get away from me." She screamed at the top of her lungs, it sounded like her cries could break glass they were so loud. "Let me go." She was crying now, tears of anguish falling freely and uncontrollably down her face.

All my focus was on her, until I felt something. It was as if someone had slapped me. I felt it again only this time harder. My consciousness was drawing back to the land of the living, but before the image faded completely I heard something.

"Tell Kronos we have held up his end of the deal." The scientists administered something to her that made her go limp and I screamed, trying to come back but it was already to late as I bolted upright in bed.

I felt a hand go over my mouth as I stared up to the sight of a panicked Luke. He was crouched over me allowing his golden blond hair to fall over his face and the room was pitch black but I could tell it was him by the way his eyes shined.

I gave him a look like 'can you please remove the hand from my face' and he looked sheepish for a moment before pulling his hand away. I threw of my blankets that pooled at my waste and glared at him.

"I-" I cut him off with a hand in the air and he snapped his mouth closed. Technically this was the first time we had meant in person, but he was basically my older brother and he knew that I always knew everything. Maybe he was getting used to it.

Yeah never mind, no one will ever get used to having an 8 ye- well now 9 year old harbor more intellect than them.

"1" I stated putting up one finger, I rolled out of bed and made my way to my dresser. "You should know better than to wake me in REM sleep, I could go into sleep paralysis." I glared at the boy who just seemed to hold a bit of anger, like he didn't have time for my comments.

I pulled out a My Chemical Romance  T-shirt, a black leather jacket and a pair of black jeans and glanced at Luke before pulling my current t-shirt over my head.

"2" I stated pulling the black lowly hanging cloth over my scrawny form, I looked over to the boy who now had his eyes to the ground and pursed his lips in awkwardness. I pulled down my pajama pants and replaced them with the aforementioned jeans hopping up and down trying to pull them over my legs. " I know what your here for, so don't throw a hissy fit, kay?"

I ducked down under my bed and felt around blindly for my pair of black converse. "3" I perked back up to face the now frowning boy and sat next to him on my bed pulling on a shoe. "I need to know what happened on your end." I pulled on the other shoe and ran to the door pulling on my jacket. I turned back around to the dismayed blond, waiting.

"What are you doing, we need to leave, now." I barked and the older teen scrambled off the bed following me out if the door. I turned down the maze of corridors only to stop abruptly and check my watch, it was only 12 am. I almost sighed in relief, Batman would be on patrol still. "Explain." I stated turning to look at Luke who was on my heels.

He sighed and shook his head as I turned back around and started to hack the batcomputer with Leo to show me the location of the batmobile. He fell in beside me and we marched through the manor.

"She called me in the middle of the night yesterday." He began his voice quivering, I glanced at him worriedly.   
"She was panicked, taking about how they found her, how she should have never looked into something." He looked down to his feet and my mind churned in thought.

"I should have warned her to stay away from him, maybe if I knew she was investigating her mother's death than she would have never gotten captured." My voice was deep with guilt and I walk a little faster, trying not to let the fear in my eyes show.

"What do you mean?" His voice rang out behind me urgently. I rolled my eyes at his slow working. After getting the location of the bathroom did I answer his question.

"It's a bit obvious, even if you didn't know who she was captured by, which I do, than you could figure out that the only thing she would think of investigating is her mother death. She doesn't know who actually killed her, I think she wants to get her revenge like I do." I glided down the spiral staircase with grace and ran to the door. I had to find Batman instead of going to the cave and calling him back, it's not like I could tell Luke that Batman is my uncle, only Nico knew.

"Yeah that was so clear." Luke stated sarcastically. "Where are we going anyway?" He questioned and I looked back to him with a smirk.

"To get back up of course." I turned back around and ran out of the manor's front door, hopping onto the nearest motorcycle. Luke came by my side nervously and I held out a deep purple helmet that match the shade of the gleaming bike. He took it hesitantly and swung his leg over the vehicle.

"You do know how to drive this thing right?" He asked nervously putting on the helmet. I smirked.

"Lets find out." I reved the engine and took my foot of the break. Looks like I can drive pretty well, he doesn't need to know that.

We zoomed through the streets of Gotham, weaving in and out of traffic. Now I know what your thinking, why did not one stop a crazy 9 year old motorcycle driver? Well I'll answer that question with a question. Who's going to care about a leather clad 9 year old when police are too occupied  shooting criminals in dark alleyways and trying to stop villains from robbing the multiple Gotham banks about 5 time a night? To answer you question no one, absolutely no one cares.

Luke held on tighter to me as I made a sharp turn to exit the main highway, going to the outskirts of Gotham. I sped off down a single road with almost no cars at about 150 MPH  and I almost laughed at Luke's tense form. I stopped abruptly in front of a familiar warehouse and I took my helmet to savor the boys terrified face for a bit longer

"Stay here." I ordered swinging a leg off the bike and sprinting into the ally near the building. After climbing up the fire escape like I have so many times it crawled through the window, dropping down onto the metal platform.

Suddenly I had the urge to duck, like really bad and I dropped to the floor just in time for a knife to be thrown into the area above my head. I looked over to see a drowsy Nico with a bad bed head glaring at me. Then he noticed it was me and he glared harder.

"Nice aim but do you think you can see who it is before you throw, I very much do not want to be decapitated again." I smirked at the boys annoyance as he walked over and pulled his knife out of the wall.

"What do you want Perce I was sleeping." He groaned and I looked him in the eye with nervousness.

"I need your help." I explained and he nodded, now serious.

"I swear Percy if you ran away again-" I cut him off with a glare and he could tell from my expression that I came on business.

"I'm going to cut this short because I don't have time for long explanations."I sighed and jumped out the window, motioning for him to follow. He complied and he followed me down the fire escape.

"Annabeth got captured by a man named Lex Luther." He stared at me startled, he never knew her but I had spoke highly of her on many occasions. He knew of her skill and her importance to me. I hadn't met her in person either but that was for safety reasons, the hunters can sense us more easily were together.

"What do you need me to do?" He replied, his face held no amusement. I checked Leo and saw that Batman had moved to a familiar place on crime ally.

"I need your help to break into his secret facility that not even Bats knows about, we'll not right now anyway, and save her before they do any damage." Nico gulped at my words and I put an arm around his shoulder. "Will you help?" The 7 year old nodded and I gave him the location and told him to stay hidden.

The younger boy disappeared in a burst of Shadows and I was left standing in the middle of the alleyway trying to think. There was no way that I couldn't bring Batman into this, he would just have to suck it up that I was helping Anny. Making my way back out of the ally I saw that Luke was still frozen in the same position, I smirked.

"I'm not going slower you know." I disclosed and he gulped as I placed the purple helmet onto my head. I swung my leg over the seat and revved the engine before taking off, making a sharp turn to go back into Gotham city.

When we pulled up into an ally the batmobile was park a way inside. As I got of the bike Luke stared frozen at the car and slowly turned his head to me and stared at me as if I had just said I wanted to date Poison Ivy.

"Percy is that the Batcar?" He hissed and I found myself smirking once more. I internally groaned at the thought of the very awkward conversation that was going to be inevitable. Bruce better not argue with me much, he knew I was more stubborn.

"Batmobile actually." I corrected and leaned against the ally side. Bruce hasn't let me even see a villain out of my dreams yet, how could I possibly get him to let me tag along.

I thought about the other software I put in my ring, but I didn't want Bruce to know about that yet. What could I even do? I couldn't even fight that we'll unlike Luke who was a majestic unicorn.

I stared up into the darkness of the ally, watching it swirl and seep on the wall like it was a blanket of shadows. Maybe I was useless, I couldn't even take down one monster and it almost destroyed the manor. I don't want to be the wimpy little stalker that can't take care of himself, that run to the hills at the first sign of danger. No doubt I still want to be a stalker, stalking people is awesome, but is it a little to much to ask to want to be something more?

I didn't want to be useless, I wanted, no needed to help.

As Bats and Robin walked over to the batmobile I glanced back to the fearful teen and sent him a silent message to stay the hell out of the way. When I walked into the light both caped hero's went on full defensive mode. The both turned around, tense and weapons ready, until they saw my small form.

"What are you doing here?" Batman questioned gruffly and I just gave him a look. He couldn't scold me like he should be able to, the bat glare still unnerved me but I knew better than to let a simple action waver my face persona. I

I sighed heavily and put finger to my lips to show we were not talking here. He got the memo and ushered me into the Batmobile, not wanting to give away any information I had for him. He knew my look of seriousness, it was rare, I only used it when something was very wrong.

"What is it?" He asked, less annoyed at my sudden intrusion into his nightly outings with boy wonder who took a stance next to the sleek black vehicle.

I shifted a bit and thought about how I was going to explain to him. I didn't want to keep any secrets from him, it would decay any trust he had in me. I wanted to tell him everything, yet I wanted to tell him nothing. I didn't want him to intrude in the life I had set up with the friends I had earned. I didn't want to loose them, but I didn't want to loose him.

I refused to leave anyone.

"I think it would be easy to show you." I explained and he nodded, i had briefed him on these topics before mentally. I reached to his temple and pulled him carefully into REM, not wanting to damage his mind, dreams could be a dangerous place.

As my vision faded to darkness and my eyes glowed white I closed my eyes and opened them again in REM. The scene was the it's normal dark void of my cleared mind, Bruce and me standing on nothing, yet standing next to each other. He was still in his Batman attire so I couldn't see his features changing behind the caw.

I glanced at him nervously before waving a hand slowly in front of me, allowing the scene that I couldn't get out of my mind if I tried to form. It started at the meeting between Lex Luthor and Ra's Al Ghul to which Bruce only raised an eyebrow.

"What distraction?" Bruce muttered as a thought to himself as Lex made his glorious speech about we will she the light. I looked away as I braced myself for the memory to flow through me, last time it shook me to my core.

"That's not what I brought you here for." I glanced at Bruce once more who only narrowed his eyes, barely visible through the caw. I closed my eyes and shifted the view as Lex got the call from the man named Dr Desmond.

" _Computer, show me asset E348 Delta_." I shut my eyes tight as the the view changed to the room where Annabeth layed struggling to get free of her bonds.

" _Let me go."_ I tried to calm my breathing as I concentrated on showing the memory, trying not to get sidetracked by more... harsh ones.

Finnally the view went dark I was still facing to the side head down? Trying not to show the wavering in my breath. Finnally not giving a dam about if I looked weak I looked up and took a shaky breath, running my hand through my wild black hair. I turned hesitantly to Bruce who looked at me expectantly, this will not be easy to explain.

"Her name is Annabeth Chase." My voice wavered a bit but it held firm and calm. My eyes burned with fire, not being able to hold in my frustration, I truly didn't know what to do. "I have to save her Bruce, she's like family." At this point I had tears in my eyes but I didnt care, the truth of what has happened hit me hard.

What if she disappeared.

What if we didn't save her in time.

What...what if I never saw her again.

I sank to my knees as I began to shake. I felt to weak, to barren, I couldn't hold back my memory's and images began to flash to quickly to see in front of us. I squeezed my eyes shut trying to get a hold of my emotions. The images stopped and I felt a hand on my shoulder. Looking up through shinning eyes Bruce gave me as much as a sympathetically look as he could with blank eyes and a straight face.

"Wi-will you help me." I asked at last in a quivering yet strong voice, my eyes shinning in hope. Bruce looked of into the now pitch black surroundings before moving his gaze back to me and nodding.

I felt fresh tears rush down my face as I crushed him in a hug. His kevlar armor was stiff and pressed up against my form uncomfortably but I could be more relieved. I sniffed and pulled away closing my eyes to open them up in the real world.

My eyes died from there glowing white color and I blinked trying to stop the spots dancing in my vison. I  stared at Bruce for a moment who seemed to be lost in thought.

After i sent the location of the base she was being held at he finnally glanced up and through his steely deep voice he inquired what I had dreaded so harshly.

"Your not coming." I sat there in silence mulling over his words for a millisecond before a fought in protest.

"I already have my help, I'm coming whether you like it or not." I retorted in an explosive tone. Bats climbed out of the high tech car and I followed suit glaring.

"Lex Luther is a dangerous man, I'm not letting you get into his hold." He replied gruffly, almost in the same tone as me.

"Don't you think I know that." I practically screamed, tears showing in my eyes. He wouldn't keep me from saving her. "He has captured what could practically be considered my sister and I want to help, you can't keep me from this." He glared at me from behind his domino caw but I held my ground, fueled by outrage.

"Your not coming and that's final." He spat back motioning to Robin, who was standing of awkwardly to the side trying to ignore the argument, to get into the Batmobil.

"So that's it you speak and you word is law?" I asked miffed, my tone getting more explosive with each pronounced syllable. He lurched into the sleek car next to Robin and before the windshield closed fully he answered in a deep rough inflection.

"Yes"

The sleek car rocketed out of the ally making a sharp turn at when it hit the street and drove out of the city of Gotham at light speed, and me? I was left standing in the wake dust cloud formed by the speeding object the wind ripping at my hair and cloths like it had hands pulling at me.

I bit my lip to refrain myself from letting out a sting of curses in a language that I didn't know I knew. I turned around like as fast as a bullet and punched the brick wall with as much force that I could muster. I didn't feel any pain in my hand as I stared at the now dented brick.

"Nico you can come out now." I called to the child handing in the shadows. He walked over to me sadly and put a comforting hand on my shoulders but I just looked away from his gaze. I led him out to the bike that Luke continued to sit on and neither questioned the events that has just occurred, for which I was grateful.

I swung my leg over the vehicle in front of the blond haired boy and watched as the dark haired boy gave me a nod of confirmation before disappearing into the shadows.

"Were still saving her right?" Luke ask  from behind me, almost worried. I glared at nothing in particular as I put my helmet on and reved the engine, feeling it hum underneath me.

"Hell yes." The tires screeched as I pressed on the gas, not looking back.  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	13. Golden Eyes

I struggled against my bonds as he glided slowly to where I was positioned on the cold hard metal table. He wore a smirk as he knew that there was no way I could get out of this. His eyes still held the same sadistic gleam from when I had saw him kill another. It still unnerved me.

Golden eyes.

They sparkled with callous nature, unblinking, a piercing gaze. Those eyes were worse than any glare Bats could conjure up, those eyes told you the story of your demise without speaking. Those eyes were evil, vulgar, sinister, and I held the brute of their gaze.

I struggled against my bonds harder. They were strapped against all my hands and feet, pinning them all to the side, and three circled against my collarbone, abdomen and head. There was no escape for this.

He was a foot away from me now, his features twisting into a viscous snarl more than a smirk. I could feel his breath, a warm stream of air as he leaned down, towering over my form that was frozen in fear.

Gold unblinking eyes.

I closed my eyes as he leaned in even further, trying to block out my fear. This would be it this is where it would end.

"You really are just like your father." He breathed and I tried my hardest to not let my eyes water. "Any last words?" He asked.

I tried to speak but my voice was muffled by a piece of tape over my mouth. The man above me took the edge of the tape and ripped it off as painfully as he could to reveal red split lips. I gasped for air and held a defiant gleam in my eyes, even if this was the end I would get the last word."

"Have you ever noticed how cliché you are?" I inquired putting a fake playful look on my features, ignoring the pain in my bruised jaw. I tried to have humor in my voice but the pain showed in my eyes. "Seriously 'any last words', everyone uses that. The only thing that would make this more cliché is if you were british."

The man growled under his breath and glared at me, I smirked back but it was wiped off my face as I saw the underline animalistic gleam. I pursed my lips and looked back down to the floor as he leaned down once more.

"Lets not forget who has who pinned to a table." I would have burst out laughing histaricly but it didn't seem like the moment so I settled for a smirk.

"I didn't know you swing that way, don't you think I'm a little underage though?" His glare was only made harsher, which I took pride in.

"I should have kept you muzzled." I rolled my eyes, he was stupid if he just thought of that know.

"Hey, I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff." His face remained furiously stoic and I sighed. "I swear like talking to a brick wall." I muttered with fake disappointment." Hey i just released something, you haven't done your evil monolog-"

I gasped in pain as the golden knife he held in his right hand plunged into my abdomen. My eyes went wide as he smirked sadistically, I choked on the air. My body racked with pain as he twisted the knife in my stomach.

"If your like your father, you can die like him as well." I gasped for breath, pain overtaking my senses.

This was the end.

\---FLASHBACK---

_"Do you even have a plan?" The 9 year old questioned, I just glared at him._

_We were squaring 100 meters away from the facility that was an underground channel in Blüdhaven. We were far enough from the facility to where the sensors wouldn't detect us but to where I could manually tap into the camera feed._

_In truth I didn't exactly have a plan per say, more like a goal.... What many people have life goals without a life plan why can't I have a goal of rescuing my friend from a psychopathic rich person?_

_Besides in not like I can't improvise, I improvise a lot. Which may be why I'm smirking, sometimes my improvisations are awesome._

_"Leo" My voice rang out strongly, you could almost feel the smirk behind it. "Initiate Omega 547D" I stood up from where I was crouched behind a bush and extended my arms and legs._

_"Affirmative sir." Then it began, black cloth started running up my legs and arms, molding to my form. It even went over my shoes, covering my converse. Soon the material covered my face, but it was see through and breathable. In conclusion I looked like a black blob, non reflective material making me hard to see in the night._

_"You do realize that the facility that will have light." Luke interrupted my awesome costume sequence, I could almost hear my mental hero music coming to a halt. I glared at Luke again before taping the top of my still visible bronze ring. I vanished._

_I watched with amusement as Luke mimicked a fish, opening and closing his mouth. I walked behind him without a sound, the material absorbed any impact.... well to an extent. I poked him on the shoulder and smirked as he twirled around trying to see me._

_"This isn't funny Percy, we need to focus on the mission." He looked at me expectantly and I sighed, feeling a little guilty for letting myself get distracted. I pressed the ring again and became visible. "What is the plan?"_

_I thought for a second before pulling up a hologram of the security feeds on the side of my ring, oh how I love my ring. I knew Batman would make a stealthily attempt to retrieve her by hacking the security feeds and motion sensors. They would have succeeded in that plan I'd they accounted for the security guard presence._

_"A distraction." I answered just as the facility showed crimson blaring light._  
_"The only entrances to the facility is the ground that retracts for a landing pad and a vent hidden in the ground. Since Bats and Rob obviously couldn't use the landing pad entrance they would hack the security systems and use the vents. But since that's the only entrance there is too many guards stationed there." Luke nodded in understanding._

_"I thought you were going to use me as a distraction." I chuckled hysterically from my squatted position, that was my first idea._

_"No your job is to help Nico make sure they get out without being captured." A look of confusion passed over his face and I forgot that he didn't know Nico yet, I mentally facepalmed._

_"Nico meet Luke" I stated to the seemingly empty space behind me. Luke looked at me like I was crazy but the shadows darkened and the small Italian boy appeared out of them miffed. "Luke meet Nico"_

_"How did you know I was there?" Nico questioned still miffed. I smirked at him knowing that he wanted to show off._

_"Where else would you be other than listening to the plan?" I retorted my smirk growing wider._

_"Are you willing to travel us inside?" He looked to me and then to Luke before sighing and nodding. He grabbed both of our arms._

_"Brace yourself." He warned Luke and shadows converged around us. They swirled around violently, ripping at my suit even though I wasn't supposed to feel it. Coldness seeped into my bones, a chill of unease. As we traveled through the shadows, they seemed to scream and call out in what seemed like a mixture between fury and despair like they wanted nothing more than to kill us._

_I huddled closer to Nico, still not daring to open my eyes. The shadows still gave me a feeling of unease, an unsettlement in the base of my stomach like fear. It was different then fear though, it seemed more tamed in the direction of terror but made you feel like you were crawling out of your own skin._

_The shadows ceased in their storm of darkness as we appeared inside the compound. The stark white walls and florescent lighting contrasted sharply against the previous shadowy realm. We seemed to be in the middle of the hall, long corridors stretching wide on both sides of us. They were lined with multiple door, bolted and reinforced with titanium by the looks of it._

_Taking a moment to assess my surroundings, my eyes fell on my team. Luke was groaning and closing his eyes tight against the light, looking at but sick from the joy ride. Nico gazed at me, steely and serious with dark eyes glinting in the bright illuminated corridor, he knew what was at stake._

_"Bring them back to the bike when you get out with them. If trouble strikes leave me here, we don't need more people caught, just get out as fast as you can." I ordered my seat green eyes swirling with taut ascendancy. The golden haired boy started to protest, but a glare shut him up. Nico just nodded without emotion, he knew the situation was grave enough to fall in these circumstances._

_I nodded back to the boy once more and he began you run through the hall, not making any sound as he small feet hit the floor. I took one more glance at the boy before hitting the button on my ring once more, vanishing into the air._

_I pulled up the scariest to the building, hacking the system for the location of her room. Red lights were still blaring all around, the sound that accompanied bounced off the walls like screams. I pushed the distracting thought out of my mind, the screams of the alarms pushed into the back of my consciousness._

_I had too many memories with screams._

_They were holding her in a room at sub-level 34, I was only on 15. There was an elevator that I could climb down, but who knew how many security measures they had? One way to find out. I sprinted quietly to the end of the hall, above the polished white walls hung a work of perfection for every stalker out there. An air vent._

_For a secret base they had rudimentary programing on lower security access. Basic algorithms and codes broke through the bases firewalls like they was made of glass. Of course not many hackers knew the codes that I created, but not many hackers could look into government servers ethier._

_So hacking the motion sensors was a piece of cake, as was fitting my small form onto the air vent. What was not easy was the amount of security on the room doors. When I peered down from the vent conveniently located near the room she was being held in, if I wasn't a calm person I might have defecated. The doors had biometric access, a key an lock deadbolt, and it was reinforced like every other door in this place._

_I could get passed the deadbolt with ease, I learned how to pick a lock when I was 5. The biometrics however were not possible. My eyes furrowed in thought, not impossible to get into the doors, but with a little...help I knew a way._

_I tapped furiously onto the hologram, hacking into one of the main operating systems. The doors couldn't be hacked from there, they each had there own server with interchanging codes, but the security systems were weak everywhere else._

_After waiting in the vents fighting with the codes of security and disabling any other measures that could detect my presence I sent the alert. I swung down from the vent with practiced ease, landing softly on the ground._

_The moment came for my entrance as a soldier glided stiffly through the hall. He was tense and alert, wearing a white uniform that matched the walls. He had a high tech gun pointed at the floor, ready to use no doubt, he was as tense as I was._

_"The vicinity is clear." He spoke into his comm and I smirked. Yes it was clear, it was so clear that you were about to enter the room._

_The guard confirmed my suspicions as he tilted his head to the side, listening for orders in his comm. He proceeded to place his hand onto the screen plastered to the left of the door and and it ran a scan of the biometrics before lighting up bright green._

_The door swung wide open and I took the opportunity to let a victory smirk grace my invisible features. As soon as the door opened fully and the man glanced inside a slipped up to his side on the tops of my toes and pressed a finger to his temple. The man fell to the floor as a wave of dizziness overcame me, would never get used to that._

_Peering into the now open door my eyes setting on what I had came for. I scrambled to her form on the metal table. She looked horrible, her face was pale, eyes sunken and hollow. She still wore her gray dress with black accents accompanied by a cloak but they were now crinkled by the many straps laying across her form. Her mask was taken off now, showing her sharp features and her long lashes and it was framed by her wild blond hair._

_This was the first time i had saw her in person, but she was one of my only friends, like a sister. I didn't know what sleeping drug they had administered to her, but she was out cold, no longer screaming, struggling. I had to wake her up._

_I found myself by her side, cutting the straps that held her down. My knife cut through them like butter, slicing the barriers that held her back. It showed red lines on her as they fell to the floor. There was no way I could carry her, she was 3 years older than me._

_Hesitantly I reached a hand to her temple, touching her pale skin. Power coursed through my fingertips, energy, she had to wake up. I felt the nausea that came with using my powers but I ignored it, she had to wake up._

_Her grey pierced through the room. Sparkling grey eyes, that shined with light. These stormy eyes also held fear, she was afraid, terrorized. I removed my finger from her temple as she bolted upright, no longer held back by the straps. Her eyes were wide, breath coming in pants, her features holding confusion._

_I quickly made myself visible and attempted to calm her down but it was like she wasn't even seeing me. I was in front of her waving my hands in front of her face but it was like she was looking past me, as if I was still invisible._

_"Annabeth."I called out putting a hand on her shoulder. "Annabeth can you hear me? Anny answer me." My voice was panicked, she wasn't answering. Her eyes seemed clouded, out of it, like she wasn't even there._

_The the red lights of the inhibitor collar around her neck shown through her blond hair and I got an idea. I pulled out my holographic screen and input codes until the crimson light emitted from the piece of technology went dark._

_She gasped for a breath as her eyes seemed to clear, eyes darting around frantically. Before I could even blink I was slammed into the table, the hard metal bruising my skin. My head swarmed as I was pinned down into the position, a blur of blond curls above me._

_The girl who was like a sister to me, the girl who I tried so hard to save, was above me pinning me down with a ferocious gleam in her eyes. I tried to struggle out of her grasp but failed as she held her forearm to my neck. Those eyes held so much confusion, so much anger, a swirling grey storm._

_"Where am I?" She questioned her voice harsh and filled to the brim with fury. I froze and tried to speak but nothing came out. Did she not remember me?_ _So I stared up at her with wide innocent eyes as she panted heavily. She gripped my suit and pulled me off the table like I was a rag doll than slammed me back down with all her force. I felt my head bouncing off the table and I groaned in pain. "Answer me!" She nearly screamed._

_"Y-you d-don't remember?" I stuttered out with fear and I felt her grip loosen. "Me and Luke-" She tensed and her grip tightened as she interrupted me._

_"Don't play me, I've had enough of your games." She shouted and i swallowed my words as she gave me another forceful shake. "Tell me!" She spat, venom dripping from her words._

_"Were trying to rescue you." I gazed into her stormy eyes with terror. What did they do to her?_

_"Stop playing with me and tell me the truth you low lying Titan." She shouted and gripped me painfully. I had no idea of what to do, I couldn't hurt her, I physically didnt have the capacity to do so._

_"What do you mean? Titan? Its me Percy." I held my hopeful gaze into her swirling eyes. They seemed to glaze over for a moment, just staring at me intently in silence._

_Her vision cleared after a moment of tense silence, silence filled with apprehension and the betrayed torment of my mind._

_Her grip on me disappeared all together as her eyes seemed to clear. Her breath hitched softly and her eyes lost their storm but they took on another glint. Was that worry? She shuffled off my form eyes still trained onto my shocked expression, almost gaping at a loss for words._

_"Don't trust him." She stated, her eyes hardening. She pronounced every word like it would be the thing that saved my life. Her tone was even an warning but it made me fall out of my frozen stupor._

_She stood up and walked out of the door as if she was in a trance, head held high and her cape swirling as her feet. Finding my panting form on the table not at all useful I scrambled off and followed suit to her actions._

_"What do you mean? Don't trust who?" I questioned frantically speeding out of the cell like room. She halted in the middle of the hallway and tucked her head to the left. She stood there for a moment, contemplating, before answering._

_"Trust no one, nothing." She fully turned to me now her analyzing eyes boring into my mind. "The things you have learned are not the truth, the memory you have received are false. Do not trust the words of your friend, he is not who you think. It was all a plot a tra-" her speech was cut short as a slicing sound echoed off the corridors._

_Annabeth looked down to a piece of golden metal protruding from her abdomen. Her eyes widened as she l gasped for breath and her gaze fell to me. She mouthed one last word before she fell limp to the white floor that was soon to be soaked with blood. RUN._

_I backed away apprehensively as the man of my nightmares appeared in my view, pulling the golden sword out of her stomach. There was a viscous gleam in his golden eyes._

_Golden eyes._

_My slow retreat became a tad faster as my features contorted in fear. My heartbeat thundered in my ears making my chest constricted with perturbation._

_I was so focused on his eyes, the golden eyes that shown through you, I lost view of the world. He smirked, pearly white teeth sparkling, because he knew the fear in felt, the fear he caused. His features showed me a madman behind those eyes, demented, insane, deranged. His expression held that of a lunatic as he smirked, my breath hitched._

_Then there was sting in the base of my neck, a sudden prick. I tensed and and my neck_ _locked_ _up in pain,_ _I_ _couldn't_ _process anything that was happening, every thing was going the fast._

_The golden eyes._

_My head swarmed and throbbed painfully as_ _I_ _swooned, black spots began dancing in my vison. I hit the ground painfully only moments later, losing my balance and my bones feeling like_ _over_ _cooked evil pasta. I_ _couldn't_ _find myself to_ _care_ _though, all that was on my mind was those eyes._

_Golden eyes._

_My_   _vision went dark._

\---FLASHBACK OVER---

I was rarely confused. I mean compared to a lot of other people I knew squat, I was young and ignorant. This though, this was real parlous confusion. I couldn't rap my mind around it, anything, though it was clouded with a sharp pain in my abdomen. 

My eyes weren't even open, but I knew where I was. It only added to the confusion of what happened. _How did_ _I_ _get here?_ I was vaguely aware of the constant beeping at my side but I had blocked it out in favor of not going insane. Everything was so jumbled, confusing, backwards, complex. All I could really do was keep inhaling and exhaling shallow breaths.

I could remember everything, I always did, perfectly, but I couldn't physically comprehend it. I wanted so bad just to scream and yell into room like I was insane so I could clear my mind. I couldn't breath everything was so clouded, so close, so jumbled.

For the first time in while my eyes opened. Tears stained the edges and shivers of urge to just full out sob coursed through me. I couldn't think, I was so confused like I was in the murky depths of the ocean and I was trying so hard the swim up to the surface but something was dragging  me back down to the deep abyss. I struggled to swim back up but I couldn't get free of the tide pulling me down. I felt it's chilled water, the inky blackness of memory.

Drowning.

I was drowning in my thoughts.

The tears in my eyes fell down my face as I took a shaky breath and cleared my vison. I gave up on trying to think, I wouldn't be able to refrain what happened for a while.

"Your awake." A soft voice pierced through the air and my head fell limp in the other direction it came from. I couldn't face this, I couldn't handle the talk everything was so clouded. I just kept quiet, biting my lip in order not to scream, I really wanted to scream out all of my problems. I wanted to load it all out and forget, forget all of my problems. Forget the golden eyes.

I heard another voice whispering to the billionaire, but after that the room fell quiet. Too quiet. I slowly moved my head in the other direction, looking to my uncle and cousin with all emotions showing. All of the confusion, regret, guilt, misery and indignation. All was there to read, I couldn't hide it as my eyes shined with fresh tears.

"They say fear is not real." I began, my voice hoarse and soft, yet full of so much emotion. "That it's the product of the thoughts you create." A single tear traced it's way down my cheek as I turned my eyes to the floor. "They say danger is very real, but fear is a choice." My voice cracked and it seemed like they were surrounding my bedside in a millisecond.

I closed my eyes and pushed myself up carefully into a semi-sitting position. My face contorted with pain and I bit my lip again so hard It left the taste of iron inside my mouth. I took a deep breath and gazed up at the two with an almost unreadable expression. Almost. There was a hint of fear in my eyes, I tried to not let it show but it was there, I was afraid.

"They say do not feed the fears, to defy what you find absolutely terrifying because fear is just a reflex telling you that there is something important to overcome." I continued and I felt a hand on my shoulder, smaller than Bruce's. I stared up with big eyes at my cousin.

"It's OK to be afraid, Percy." Dick soothed but I just shook my head.

"They say a quiet mind is able to see intuition over fear." I brought shaking hand stop my face, pasty white hands. "Everything is clouded, I can't see, it's to close, to rapid. It's like I'm drowning." I took a deep breath and swallowed my words, I was practically ranting nervously, tripping over my words and refusing to meet their eyes.

I was jittery, shaking, I was spilling everything out, moving it to the light. The thoughts wouldn't stop. I finally looked up to the them after a moment of silence and Bruce broke it.

"We need to know, everything. You can trust us." His eyes held truth, sympathy, they still retained their caring nature even though I was the worst nephew in the world.

And I found myself spilling out everything, every feeling secret and action. I did trust them, her words were pushed to the farthest corners of my mind.

I couldn't help but trust, it was in my nature.

But those golden eyes shook me to the core.

I wasn't afraid, I was terrified.

The unblinking golden eyes.  
  



	14. Sure....Because This Is A Discussion On Mental Stabilty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooo I shook. But so is Rachel.

  
"I told you I'm fine." I argued with the pale brunette that sat in the seat beside my hospital bed. I was seriously starting to go crazy. I had gotten all to used to the smell of the hospitals sanitized air and the hard springy uncomfortable beds. I had to get out before I actually went crazy, I'd rather not be sent to the asylum.

"You were freaking stabbed, Percy." Nico retorted exasperated, I groaned and fell back onto the uncomfortable bed.

I was still in a hospital gown because anything else would be considered _unsanitary_ and it wasn't even a good one, it crinkled like a plastic bag every time you moved. I was seriously starting to consider actually watching Jeopardy. That was literally the only thing playing on the TV, next was who wants to be a millionaire, way ahead of you there.

"I know I was stabbed, I was there. That doesn't change the fact that I need to do something." My voice was a wine at this point and Nico just stared at me like I was a little kid, we'll technically I was.

"You don't need to do anything, you can sit there and look pretty." The brooding 7 year old replied and I pouted. Sitting up again making the ruff thin white blanket pool at my waste.

"I will sit here and look pretty. I do that naturally." I quipped and Nico just gave me a dead stare. "Look I'm bored out of my mind, for a moment there is was thinking about watching who wants to be a millionaire. That's like suicide, once you go down that hole you never come back. Also I think I'm talking way too fast, it's probably the ADHD, I haven't moved from this bed in like a week. Never mind scratch that it's been three days. I don't know what I'm doing with my life I mean-"

"Percy"

"I know I'm only 9 but Bruce says I have so much potential, I'm not going to go anywhere in life watching who wants to be a millionaire in a hospital. The only people who do that are old people. No offense to old people of course, I just don't really see their views-"

"Percy!"

"I mean there are perfectly good shows out there like impractical jokers or Marvel's Agents of Shield. Why must they watch shows like Jeopardy? And then they won't let you change it to anything else when you they're watching Oprah. What is it with Oprah? It's like she's some of goddess, the giver to people. What was i talking about? Oh wanting to leave this God forsaken place its-"

"Percy!!"

"So boring and bland, i think I'd rather have the form of torture where you get a cut in the Web of your finger between the pointer finger and the thumb. It's the worst kind of torture, every time you think the cut is healed and you go to reach for something it opens up again and stings like a female dog. Oh, even worse is if you put lemon juice on it, so it always stings. I think I'd rather get stabbed again- "

"PERCY!" Nico yelled and I looked up innocently to his vexed features.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"Ok." I bit my tongue and Nico sighed shaking his head at my childlike ramblings. We sat there in silence for a moment before I broke it. "Would I be considered goth?"

"......I'm going to get a dam taco." He spun on his heel and exited the room with a slam of the door. I jumped at the noise and smirked.

"That reminded me of that one book...." I trailed off still smirking, alone at last. Bruce had to run the head of his company no matter how much he wanted to stay here and keep me company. For Dick, the beginning of the school year just started and he was just starting his classes. I should also be in school.... I guess getting stabbed has its perks.

I would probably just go into REM, but that's no fun. I had been in this bed for days on end with the only entertainment being Wheel of Fortune, I was about to hang myself once more. Besides I had something to do, I would get down to whatever happened in that facility.

From what Nico told me, I had lost another friend that night. Something twisted inside me when I recalled her words. _Everything you know is a lie._ And it was, her words rang true. My reality had twisted to fit the girl in my mind's words. To find that she wasn't even the real person, that I was played made my gut twist. Even the 9 year old that I thought was my friend had knocked Nico out and left him for dead as soon as I got into the facility. 

I squeezed my eyes shut and thought about all the times they had interacted with me. When Luke had trained me in sword fighting and called me his little brother, when Annabeth had taught me about what I was and told me to be a hero. How could it all be so fake? More importantly, how could I not see through the acting? It was all to perfect, to fake, like a fudging movie plot.

Sure, getting stabbed hurt like down under, but getting burnt by the very people who I thought were my friends, people who I thought would die for me..... that was simply indescribable. It came close to making me angry, but I couldn't be angry, not really. Once again it was my fault, I fell for it, I suffered for it. I just kind of felt betrayed, it tormented my mind like I could have done something different, I should have done something different. 

It was like everything in my life followed the same pattern. First I had hope, I could block out the pain of past mistakes with the thought of making new acquaintances and I could forget those who scorned me and made me feel worthless, who still make me feel like I had no importance. Next came the mistakes, I always seemed to mess up one way or another, to break someone who actually matters to me's trust. Despite my intelligence I always seemed to make the wrong decisions and take the wrong turns, someone always seemed to get hurt whether it be my mom Annabeth and on several occasions myself. Then came the lack of communication and scorn, I would shut people out and not tell them things that were important because I thought I could handle it and i thought that i could carry the world on my shoulders. 

I had already met these standards with Bruce, I had messed up time and time again, I had almost gotten killed at least three times. Sometimes, even though he was big and scary Batman he would even try to learn things about me and tried to get to know me better. I regretted my actions sometimes, I shut everyone out on a daily basis, ignoring questions and cutting off conversations that led to me telling them things about my life. Heck they didnt even know that i had friends like Nico, Luke and Annabeth until I needed help. 

I guess I only had Nico now, the big sister bond that i had with the blond haired girl was never real, a trick of the mind, a manipulation. Its not like i could ever be friends with her anyways, the real life telepath was killed, stabbed through the abdomen while I watched frozen in front of her. I don't even know who Luke was to me, he acted like he actually cared about me, called me a brother, he was a good actor. Three days sitting in a confined hospital bed and i still couldn't wrap my head around why anything in that room happened. Was it a long term complicated revenge plan? Was I supposed to die in that low lighted room scared and cold begging for help that would never come?  

I had to get answers, I kept repeating the same pattern, same cycle of hope mistakes pain and death. I had always ran, ran from my problems, I didnt want or need my life to me any more complicated so i ran from all of the compictions.  All i wanted was peace, i didnt want to have to feel the need to run, it seemed that as my actions and the situations i got in repeated they became worse and more traumatic each time. Everything piled on top of each other, weighing me down and every hit I took made seem to hurt less and less but i didnt know if i liked it. I seemed to be almost numb to the prospect of getting hurt or even dying, sometimes I felt like I deserved pain and it alarmed me that I had gotten this low, i had let my thoughts turn darker.

My mind traveled back to the previous day when Bruce and Dick were keeping me company since it was a sunday and they both didnt have anything better to do. Two hours later they were both fast asleep in the visitor chairs, their heads leaning against each other in a position that looked very uncomfortable. It was mid day but that didnt seem to matter to the lightless overcast Gotham sky making the room have a cold light tint, we don't need to go back into a rant for the fifty shades of grey hospital style. I was bored out of my mind but i let the two ninjas sleep, they needed from the multitasking of school, work and the Batman and Wonder Boy nightly outings.   

My ADHD getting the best of me I sat up groggily on the bed, swung my minuscule legs over the side, slid down to the floor and stood up hunched over leaning heavily onto the bed.  My form glided to the private bathroom and i swung the door open to reveal the small room bathed in darkness. My finger graced over the switch and it was filled with a dull yellow light that did nothing to brighten the mood of the hospital. I found myself In front of the mirror once more, hands grasping the sides of the sink tightly, i didnt look up into the mirror. To be honest i was apprehensive of seeing my own reflection, all it would bring was disappointment.

I breathed in deep and bit my bottom lip hard as I let my eyes flutter up to the piece of metal with hesitation. My matted tousled hair looked even more matted after not brushing it for a while and it framed my face in long strands that almost reached my shoulders. I almost glared at the mirror, the piercing sea green orbs scrutinizing every little detail in my appearance.

I breathed in deep trying to keep the sudden stake of pain in my head from getting any worse. I squeezed my eyes shut trying to block out the world, everything. The face staring back at me through the mirror, the confusion and heartbreak I had felt for days. The mirror showed me who I really was and not who I pretended to be, nothing. I was a weak child, a pretender, a closed off cantankerous kid, I wasn't a hero. All i was and all i was trying to be was someone known, someone important, but no i knew that all i ever was was a broken little nine year old trying to be someone would listen to. 

The little boy that glared back at me was weak, a miniscule kid. The boy in the mirror looked like me, his eyes still held a defiant gaze and his wild long black hair framed his face but i refused to think that he was me. My fingers gripped the sink harder making my knuckles turn a shade of white but i was too focused on the little boy in the mirror, me. I squeezed my eyes closed and tears pricked at the sides of my lashes making the corner of my eyes sting, i couldn't be the boy in the mirror he was to weak. _I was weak. I_  was always weak, broken, no matter how cut off i was i would always be dependant on someone, i would never have a voice of my own. 

I rocked myself back and forth on the sink trying to block everything out, the world was cruel, i was to weak to face it. I fell to me knees, quiet sobs racking my chest, everything had become so confusing so complex and it was all falling onto me, my resolve was crumbling. The plastic gown did nothing to block the cold tile floor from raking against my legs and it crackled with every diminutive movement. tears fell down my face freely, not even caring about how weak i was, everything was too hard, it was too much. 

It would be so simple just to end it all, no complications, i could have relief and it would be so easy.  I just cried even harder. 

I brought myself out of my memories, i couldn't think about it, i couldn't think about how simple it was to end my own life or how weak i was, I just needed to get answers. Everything was so confusing so i needed to make it simple, if I kept thinking about how everything was too hard it wouldn't end well.  

I opened my eyes and darted my them between the door and the window, they hadn't taken away my ring. I bit my lip swallowed hard, I had to get out of this place, things to do, people to see. I snached a pen off the desk and tore off a paper towel from the sink and simple wrote that i would be back later and they shouldn't worry, because that would work. I activated the invisible-ness in my ring and practically flung myself out the door.

I ignored the stinging pain in my abdomen as evaded the civilian population, weaving through people to exit the insufferable place. I felt a pang of guilt run through me but it soon disappeared as I breathed in the sanitized air. Not regretting my actions one bit I walked through the automatic door of the hospital, I almost laughed at the strange expression of the security guard.

I silently ran through the streets of Gotham, relishing the clouded sun, anything was better than those grey walls. Was almost to my destination, her apartment complex, when the sun momentarily peered through the veil of clouds. Gotham's fall season was no doubt cold and muggy, it seemed to be the only season in this place, but today warm light grazed the top of my skin.

The, sun that casted it's rays down onto me wasn't really full, it always seemed dull in Gotham like everything else. But as i looked up to the large illuminating ball in the sky it made him squint his eyes from the overage of light. A strange feeling passed over me, somewhere between nausea and adrenaline, and my eyes widened at the sudden blinding light that was shined into my eyes. My vision darkened and I fell against a brick wall on one of the Gotham apartment complexes, my clothed skin grazing the rough wall. I was being pulled into a vision. 

I gasped as his vision changed into a different settings. I was no longer walking down the streets of Gotham, my vision was encased in some kind of light then it was removed making multicolored spots danced in front of his vision. I only caught a glimpse of silver walls illuminated by fluorescent light. What was surrounding me looked like clouded glass and from a crimson tinge of light reflected of the walls if the sides of what looked like a pod.

The most prominent thing that I noticed was the face hovering in front of me, the one who shined the penlight in my eyes. Her skin was a deep chocolate brown with sharp, over calculating eyes and smooth features. Thin green framed glasses hung of the bridge of her nose as she analysed me and her brown hair was put up in a controlled afro.

The woman proceeded to jot down notes onto a classic small yellow paper pad and stuff it into the pocket of her gleaming white lab coat. She shut the metal door and locked it with a hiss turning on her heel out of the room.

The door to the pod like holder was mostly made out of glass, so light shined through reflecting the image from where I viewed. The reflection in the pod wasn't me though, it was of a teenager with startling sky blue eyes and tousled dark brown hair. I only caught a glimpse of anger laced deep into his features before the scene shifted.

It was darker now, it looked to be around midnight, with the moon shining brightly and the sky being only slightly over cast. That wasn't the most interesting thing, it's was the surroundings. Dust hung in the air as if it was levitating above to ruins of what looked like a concrete building. Piles of grey colored ruble surrounded the costumed people who he instantly recognised as the entire Justice League and the three sidekicks, my cousin, Flash Boy, and Saltwater. There was one person I didn't recognize though, he had a filthy torn almost glowing white jumpsuit on and unruly black hair framed his chiseled tan face.

The scene was hazy and tense, almost like a face of between the two groups by the intimidation seeping from the ranks of the Justice League. This wasn't a fight though, he was intelligent enough to perceive that this was a reprimanding. The remaining members of the Justice League either flew down or were carried by platforms from the Green Lanterns. They all seemed intimidating beyond belief and I had to wonder what the mini heros did to have the entire League glare at them like a mother scolding a child.

The scene shifted and suddenly I was right in front of the unknown teen in the ripped white suit. His face remained stoic as he stepped forward in front of the other mini heroes. After a moment of silence he glanced up uncertainty and moved his hand to a torn piece of his shirt with a bit of hesitation. He pulled it up after a moment and revealed the symbol lying beneath, the kryptonian symbol of hope and you could almost see just that shining in the depth of his sky blue eyes that were so much like Superman's. I heard gasps and noises of surprise from behind me before the scene finally faded to dark.      

My vision cleared and I felt my back hit concrete as I collapsed onto the sidewalk, my head swarming with after images of being pulled into REM. I blinked a couple of times breathing heavily trying to calm my thunderous heartbeat and I just layed there on the ground like and idiot. I groaned in pain as I arched my back trying to sit up in a vertical position, pushing myself up with my hands. My chest heaved as I propped myself up onto the brick wall squeezing my eyes tight as i tried to block out the pounding in my head.

 I really hated visions, despised, I would rather try to have an intelligent conversation with a two year old then be pulled into another forced showing of what so ever my bipolar powers choose. I sat there for a moment before pushing myself up off the ground, straightening my spine till it cracked and rolling my neck. To be honest there was several things that I would rather do than have a vision, like skydiving into the ocean without a parachute, walking into a mall with sword and screaming i'm a dinosaur, going shopping with Harley Quinn, and maybe if the circumstances are lined up and the vision is scaring I would rather go to school. You may think that that's a little extreme, especially the last one, but you have obviously never had one of my visions.

At least being invisible had its perks, no one actually saw me fall over and make a complete fool of myself. Groaning I rubbed my face tiredly, by this point I should really be used to my visions. I had no intention of investigating it at the moment, I had something else that took up my mind. My legs followed my brain and took step after step down the practically deserted sidewalk. Even though this was the warmest day you were going to get in a Gotham Fall or the beginning of winter, people didn't clog the street up like I expected.

I didn't take too long to come to my destination, almost and hour of walking, and I came to a halt in front of smooth concrete apartment complex. It was on the nicer side, meaning it didn't have Random holes through people's windows and you couldn't hear the screams that seemingly came from everywhere in Gotham. I gazed up to the tall building with hesitation visible, we'll invisible, in my eyes. Finally I walked through the front glass push door and made the reception woman snap her head up to an empty space. I held my breath until she just shook her head and returned to her work.

I decided that I had freaked the receptionist out enough and I glided silently to the stairs instead of going up the elevator, because under all the sarcastic comebacks, frequent mental breakdowns and sociopathic tendencies i was a generally nice person. Same with Bruce and Dick, behind Bruce's catankterios nature, Dicks slight alterations of the english language and both of their brooding personalities, they were emotional people dealing with loss together. As I stood in front of her door the thought punched me in the gut, they had each other, who did i have?

The memories of betrayal would be forever etched in my mind, how could it not? Standing in front of her the yellow painted pathway to answers I realized the people who acted and told me that they cared about me were the only ones i had. Other than Nico they were the ones that i confided in, the ones that assisted me through heartbreak and it still seemed so confusing and unreal that they would be the ones that caused it. Even Annabeth, or whoever she was, called me out on my ability to trust to easily. I hadn't learnt a thing, even after i trusted the people who I thought were my friends and that would be the one to pick up the pieces and found they were merely actors, I still threw my trust blindly. 

I shook my head trying to shake myself out of my thoughts and raised my hand to knock until i realized i was still invisible, I mentally facepalmed. Before i could even get the chance to knock again the door swung open and i felt something forcefully pull me inside. I stared up dumbly to the girl as she closed the door forcefully and turned her gaze to me. Her face was framed by fiery red hair that was in wild ringlets past her shoulders, it caught the light in an almost perfect way making strands of crimson turn multiple shades of a sunset like orange. Freckles dusted over her cheeks like art work on a porcelain canvas and they framed hardened green eyes. These eyes were different from my vibrant sea green orbs, something about them reminded me of a forest, pure and natural.

"You shouldn't have come here Perseus." Her voice was ominous and the way she said my name sent chills down my spine but somehow her voice wasn't threatening. She was more than a foot taller than me and at that point I was cursing every bone in my body for being so small, I felt like a child. Despite being short I stared up at her with defiance that could rival a bat glare and even though my voice was small and high pitched I answered steadily.

"You already know why I came." I started softly my gaze not wavering the tiniest bit. " And I know I shouldn't have come, even though I don't fully understand but that's why I needed to come. I need answers." the two of us were engulfed into silence and I pleaded silently with my eyes, I had to know. She looked at me for a few seconds longer before strenuously swallowing the lump in her throat and i could almost see her resolve wearing down. "Please."

She bit her lip for a second turning her head to the side so she didnt gaze into my pleading eyes making the yellow sunlight that peeked through her window outline her face in a golden glow. Sighing she turned her gaze back to my hopeful features and nodded her head and my eyes lit up. I was dragged into another room by my arm and she pushed me into an  worn brown leather chair recliner forcefully, she took the seat on the couch next to me. I corrected position on the seat and pulled my knees to my chest and looked back to the red head who was analyzing all my movements with calculating eyes.

"She was right when she said to never trust anything, even yourself. Trust is such a vague description though, such a huge word... it can either make something or destroy it." She looked into her lap and I could see a tint of regret laced into her features. What did she regret? "I never agreed with her on that point though, you see she thought you could only let people hurt you if you trusted them, but I think that her scorning the people that cared about her did nothing to better her life."

" What do you mean?" She glared at me slightly and her response came out a little horse.

"She's still dead, is she not." She rubbed the side of her face to wipe away the slight wetness she had let show. "She died trusting no one, nothing " her voice cracked.

"Why was she in my dreams?" I questioned confused, i couldn't rap my head around the fact that there was another person invading my sleep feeding me information and i had trusted her. The redhead just chalked a laugh that was almost crazed and it made me tense. 

"Lies." She broke out into some sort of crazed giggling that had me glancing around the room nervously. "So many lies, all lies, they thought they could trick you and they did. All for you, the lies the tricks..." she started a pained laugh and it turned into more hysterical giggles. "it was all so you could die" She said in between breaths. "But your alive and it's your fault, she was caught there as bait to fool you, she's dead BECAUSE OF YOU!" She was screaming at this point and I scrambled off the couch falling into the floor unceremoniously.

She shot up off the couch standing in a position above me, even though she was about 5'3 she still towered over me threateningly. My eyes widened in fear as she glared intensely, seemingly slipping out of hysterical crying and giggling and anger. 

"I sorry!" i nearly squeaked out but her glare just intensified.

"What does sorry do for me? Are you going to say those magic words and she magically appears at the door? No! shes not because sorry means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!" She screamed tearing running down the sides of her face. "She was right when she said don't trust anyone, heed to my warning Perseus, DON'T. TRUST. ANYONE. Not even yourself. You know why? Because your a MURDERER! THE KNIFE WAS PRACTICALLY IN YOUR HANDS!"

"I-" She bent down over me and covered my mouth with her hands, her face right in-front of mine and she stared into my eyes with uncontrolled rage.

"How does it feel Perseus, to have been friends with the son of the man who killed your father, the man who almost killed you. HOW DOES IT FEEL?!" She yelled the last part in some kind of crazed tone but I was just confused.   

"What do you mean?" I asked in a small voice, scrambling away from her but she just followed.

"Oh i'm sorry! I thought you were intelligent, obviously you lack comprehension skills. I said HOW DOES IT FEEL!" Tears were beginning to show in my eyes as well and got up so quickly that I almost knocked the redhead over. I bolted to the door turning invisible once more and threw myself out of that place. As i was running down the hall she shouted at me from her door, still with fury in her voice. "DON'T TRUST ANYTHING!"


	15. I'm Pretty Sure It's Not Murder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But, like, what is murder really.

So I have to admit, that wasn't my greatest idea.

Now ok ok, that was obvious from the beginning, but I gave me some information. It also gave me the current situation of being invisible and curled up in an ally. So there must be somewhere where people draw the line between a good and bad idea. Like a bad idea includes the chance of getting caught, check, the chance of getting in trouble, check, the chance of dying....Yeah this was a really bad idea. Worth it though.

Kind of.

Not really.

I'm probably mentally scared.

Well I can rant on and on about how bad of an idea that idea was, or I can continue with the bland tale of how I met Aqualad. Which hasn't happened yet....but it will. Oh spoiler.

So you know, I'm in an alley with my knees pressed up against my chest trying my hardest not to let tears fall but it's at that moment when silent sobs rack my body. So it's pretty obvious that I'm having a great time. The sarcasm is so strong. Now I'm narrating my life because obviously I need help in the mental department.

This is the moment where I fake laugh to hide real pain.

To be honest, that could have gone better. I mean did Rachel have to be a angry rational psychopathic person? Could she have not told me everything I wanted to know straight up? If she had, I would have been in my hospital bed sleeping like a cat and not in an ally cr- not crying, I refused to acknowledge that fact that I am crying. As soon as I do that, everything becomes real. As soon as I acknowledge how fudged I am than I can't hide it.

I really don't know why I can't just get up out of the alleyway and walk home. It's like my body has betrayed me, it won't follow my orders. My legs won't uncurl out of the fetal position and my thoughts won't still to a halt from their violent storm. Even though my thoughts won't stop I can't think, I cant focus on what's important. I was just thinking to much, not able to connect the events everything was clouded.

I took in a deep shake breath of the thick cold Gotham air. It was almost winter, that meant that the weather was about to go from unclean meat locker to Sharknado 2. Therefor making the breath that came from my exhale visible in the brisk air. I didn't want to move either, the ground of an alleyway suddenly seem a waffle of a lot comfortable than in a hospital bed where I was being relentlessly scolded be the people who thought It wasn't a normal occupation to get stabbed. Because for some reason when you get stabbed, people care, who knew?

Cold liquid trailed down my face slowly and almost freezing on my flushed skin. I didn't know why the cold had to make me feel so open, vulnerable almost. I liked to think that my walls were thick, unbreakable, but in reality they weren't thick enough. It was like every hit, every blow to my mind hit me hard and I would think that blocking the blow would be simple, easy, yet I couldn't deal with a crazy chick without totally not crying. The brisk air stung against my skin and made my hands shake but I couldn't find the need to hate it, it was some how calming. I closed my eyes.

Calm.

No rage....

As my eyes opened, white pigmentation clouded over membrane making them glow with fluorescence. These constant vision overloads were really getting annoying. Images flash in front of my vision, crimson tinting the edges and filled with deep aggression. The flashes came to a halt on a sudden scene and my psyche was jolted at the intensity of it. All I felt was the unrelenting anger and something edging in the back of my mind trying to get in. No, not my mind, the boy's mind, the one with the blue eyes.

The scene was from the eyes of the same person that the vision had sculpted the day before. It was the same room, well more like cavern, with red tinted walls and high-tech controls. Only this time the boy was out of the coffin like glass box....but currently fighting people. That was the moment when a fancy lightning bolt insignia flashed in front of my-well his eyes, he was fighting Flash? Suddenly he jumped up inhumanly high into the air and I got view if the entire fight. He wasn't fighting Flash, he was fighting the entire kiddy league. Not good.

The buff boy in need of serious anger management smashed down to the ground sending shocks through the entire room and creating a cloud of dust that blocked the view. The scene started to fizzle out, blacking out like a glitch until the images started again. This time they had increased vigor, flashing through before I could even see them. I got one feeling from then though, it was like they were calming down. Every once and awhile I would view the hint of a smile and the crinkle in the corner of a familiar blue eye.

The images stopped once more and froze on scene still in the boy eyes but he was looking down at the metal floor. I looked to the peripheral and immediately recognised the area...but that didn't make sense they stopped using it years ago. After too many people knew the location they had to move their base to the watchtower in space, which I should totally not know about, but lets face it, did you really expect anything else? That made my thoughts trip. What if this had already happened? What if I was just looking into the past.

"Hey Superboy, come meet Miss M." A voice rang out and the boy, _Superboy's,_ eyes snapped up to a group of people gathered around someone. Who was Superboy? Miss M? I had never heard these names and I was supposed to know everything.

Superboy moved forward to conjoin with the group that consisted of the familiar sidekicks in their civilian clothing, Aqualad, Kid flash, Robin, Martian Manhunter, but there was someone he didn't know. He was guessing that this mystery girl was Miss M, that was kind of obvious, and she look in relation with Martian ManHunter, probably the green skin. The red haired girl averted her eyes to Superboy's shirt, which no doubt held the Superman insignia. She glanced back up and slowly her white shirt, which held the X Martian ManHunter symbol, filled in black to match color with his.

"I like your shirt." She spoke in a smooth almost nervous tone, but sweet. I could tell that the boys who eyes I had been hijacking had a tiny smile grace his lips. The girl had something like blush on her cheeks which was more just like a lightning of her green skin and her mouth was twisted into a big smile. Robin nudged him with his elbow grinning like crazy and Wally sped up behind him and slung and his arm around his broad shoulders mirroring Robins face. It was like they had been old friends but Wally and Dick looked the exact same. Could this be an alternate reality? I hate not knowing things. Could this just be the future?

Superboys vision panned to the side where Aqualad stood next to Martian ManHunter. He wasn't exactly smiling, but you could tell he was happy by the old soul twinkle in his eyes. I had admit that he was one of my favorites sidekicks even though I had never met him. Well not in person anyway, I had stalked him many a times.

"Today's the day" He spoke and my eyes mentally narrowed. The day for what? Why was I even seeing this?

The scene faded out and my vision cleared out making the familiar sight of a grimy alley wall appear in front of me. I gasped for air making my back arch against the wall and the brisk air burn my throat. Mist formed whenever i exhaled a breath making a cloud of white form in front of me. Had I ever mentioned how much of a headache visions gave me? No? Well now I feel like i just got ganged up on by Joker and Two Faced with their painful cylindrical very cliche weapon choices. I closed my eyes tight trying to block out the world even more than before, sudden throbs of pain striking into my brain. I hate my life.

On some level I realize that sitting in an alley contemplating why life sucks is sorta pathetic. I will also acknowledge the fact that I am only sitting in an alley because i'm reluctant to face a very dangerous 7 year old who might actually kill me. No, of course i'm not scared of a man who dresses like a bat in his spare time, has mastered 127 ways of armed and unarmed combat and could make me regret my existence with a single look. Neither am I frightened about the prospect of going back to angry hospital officials who let me 'slip through their fingers' and taking part in very awkward explanations. No, i'm terrified to face the only friend I have and tell him that I ran away from my-well to my problems, without even letting him know. I mentally gulped.

So finally I wiped off the tear from my invisible face and pushed myself off the ground. What on earth could possibly go wrong with non social interaction? I sense foreshadowing.

So not wanting to prolong my inevitable suffering, I walked out of the alley like I didnt have a mental breakdown, which was useless because i was invisible. But I was being socially confident without actually socially interacting with anyone so I count that as a win. It was almost dusk. The sun falling from its hidden place behind the dark colored coulds showing that it couldn't be less than 5 PM. But lets take a moment to remember just how depressing and sad my life is, almost as saddening as when the took Doctor Who off of Netflix...ok moment over.

Things began to go downhill very quickly. It's really what I get for being social, walking out in pubic, things were bound to go wrong. So riddle me this, what happens when your a descendant and something in your life is open to going horribly wrong? Oh sorry I couldn't hear your reply over the sense of irony that has foretold my doom. Okay well let's set out are variables to make things very clear. I have invisibility, 10 points to Gryffindor. He/She/It is over 10 feet tall, because all hunters must be almost 3 times my size. I have pen that grows into a sword just for the sake of conveniency, no holes in any logic there. Lets not forget that this thing can literally throw me across the room like a reject member of the backstreet boys, hat should probably be mentioned. All I need is faith, trust and pixie dust. I might actually survive.

I mean there was innocent civilians screaming for their lives could I really ignore the hopeful cries of help. As soon as I actually got a look at the horrendous creature my ideals on guilt tripping myself into fighting sorta backed out of their argument. I mean it was a feasible size, I could easily beat it with the ninja skills that I totally have mastered. I mean how hard could it be? I've seen Enter The Dragon like 6 times. Oh who am I kidding, i'm just playing off my non existent ego and giving myself a pep talk going into a situation that will most likely get me killed.

I mean the other one that I fought before was like a child compared to this guy-beast-thing. Just casually barrelling through a Gotham midsection like Monday road rage. It still had the same charred crimson skin, like it had just jumped out of a fire. And this creature sorta looked like a fudged up version of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Oh thought why did you have to go to Terminator. Now all I can distract myself with is the thought of the creature turning towards me a yelling ' I told you I'd be Back.'

Well we got off track. So monster in the middle of Gotham casually tearing apart cars and sniffing the air and the little to no self confidence in my ninja skills alone. I mean how hard could it be? it's just a 20ft tall monster who's sole purpose is to end my dark little existence just because I descended from an alien race that has a stick shoved so far up it's waffle that it can't see that I'm just trying to be a stalker all by myself.

I have lots of feelings.

I feel my hand reach into my pocket for the only thing that would give me hope, not an advantage, hope. A pen.

Sounds a lot lamer out loud than it did in my head. And because I am so insanely stupid, I took a deep breath and walked calmly to the middle of the intersection repeating in my head my hopes and dreams. 'Not going to die, still have to get roasted by Wendy's.' The creature was on the other side of the intersection using the crosswalk to switch streets like a good big citizen. Of course I will have to decapitate the one bane of my existence that follows traffic and safety laws.

That's where I get miraculously saved by Aquaman. Yep, can't believe I was actually going to fight it, the creature would have tore me apart. I'm going to ignore the fact that Aquaman is in Gotham even though all the other superheros never come here. He probably has a good reason and I have to problem letting him save the city. Less stuff I have to deal with, because that's how I role. See no plot holes here.

He literally just came sliding in on a stream of water down Flower Avenue  followed by everyone's 2nd favorite sidekick, after Robin of course, like a freaking god. And I'm also going to ignore the fact that I feel pretty wimpy right now, ah yep we're ignoring that feeling and just going to relish the invisible-ness. The king of Atlantis slammed the creature with pounds of water obviously distracting it and slashed at it with his claw....only it did absolutely nothing. The magical claw didn't break the thick burned skin of the monster, only just sorta deflected off. The superheros empowering 'I'm better than you' moment kinda wore off as his useless repeated attacks did absolutely nothing to the beast.

Aqualad joined the fight from the side and slashed at the creature with his glowing duel swords and the hope deflated from my chest as it breathed fire. The thing just so happened to breath fire while it was fighting Atlanta and,  because why fudging not. The fire blew right into his chest, you could see the panic on his face as the creature threw him into a brick wall across the intersection will a powerful left hook.

I found my legs acting on their own and I was running to the sidekick with all my invisibility. He was passed out on the sidewalk in front of an abandoned building. He could take a nasty hit with the thick skin, but fire and water didn't mix too well. I knelt down in front of the fish boy and placed a hand on his forehead. He was burning up. 

I bit my lip in hesitation before raising my hand to right above my head and clenched my fist tightly. My jaw clenched with the sudden feeling of tiredness at the same time I felt the tag in the lower part of my abdomen. A collection of water from multiple sources all seem to collect around my hand and I brought it right on top of his body. What else to do other than realise?

My fist unclenched and around 2 gallons of water dropped onto his form. Immediately, his eyes shot open and he darted up into a sitting position. My arms reflexively went to shoulders to hold him back and he went still....i'm still invisible aren't I? Yep. Well that's fantastic, I probably should be visible while interacting with people. Slowly,  brought my hands off his shoulders and pressed my ring.

Aqualad backed away from me,  startled at my sudden appearance and I stood up from my place on the street. I realize that I might have looked equally cool and creepy, and that's a fact that I will gladly acknowledge. I was completely clothed in a material that resembled Kevlar, the black goggles. I was a bit monochromatic and looked like I just walked out of Blade 3 but...I mean I had abs. With the pen in my hand I clicked it and it grew into the blade I knew and Aqualad tensed further.

To vlade twisted into a horizontal positions and I held it out to him without words. I gazed at him with my head inclined slightly and waited for him to take the blade. It was obvious that he was a much better fighter than me, i'd rather not get killed thank you. He stood up and turned his vision from me to the blade to his mentor still fighting the creature without luck. I rolled my eyes, this dramatic decision sequence was taking to long and the author obviously didn't know what she was doing.

"it's the only thing that can kill it." My voice pierced the silence quite dead inside and Aqualad's eyes widened. He seemed to have for a second before responding.

"I do not wish to kill it." He answered and I blinked owlish behind the goggles. Shrugging I conceded with the point that even if it was from another planet, It was dead once you killed it. Therefore it would be Murder, bummer.

"Then seriously maim or injure, by the looks of it, our guy, gal, or Non gender binary pal won't come peacefully." I responded with venom visible in an undertone. His eyes locked onto the blade and slower than in a horror movie he slowly grabbed the blade. I could imagine the sound sequence playing out until he finally grabbed the blade and started to run toward his king.

I watched him charge the creature and slice his arm and flip over it before turning my game away and pressing the ring once more. My existence shimmered away like I was never there, never really helpful or mysterious. I didn't want the world to see me, didn't need the attention to fall down onto my small shoulders. So why did it feel like all I wanted to do was reach out and scream for help?

I smiled softly as the creature fell the the ground and Aqualad straightened his spine coming out of a flawless fighting stance. His eyes darted around confused in my area,  no doubt looking for the person who had gave him-no let him borrow the sword which won him the battle. I quickly stole a pen and a piece of paper from a nearby shop and wrote his instructions. Nope he was not keeping that pen, I'm not by any means a generous person.

'Dear Saltwater

Click the button on the hilt and throw the sword as far as you can.  I was never there. You never saw me. Hope we meet again, your existence is bearable.

               -Sincerely Somnium Storm'

The note was placed on the creatures forehead in a hurry and I found myself running again. Any more social interaction today will most likely not benefit my psyche. Night had already fallen and the streets of Gotham were bathed yellow by dimmed street lights that seemed to make everything blend together. Through my drooping eyelids I couldn't care to tell the difference between a car and a brick wall. I was just over with this, if it was possible all I wanted to do now was lay in my bed quietly and sleep for the remainder of the week. Any possible social interaction that was not wheel of fortune made me queasy just thinking about it.

Eventually the hospital came into my view and I had one last moment of hesitation. I mean I could have run away again and no one would ever find me....if they would even look. The taste of iron filled my mouth as I bit my lip too hard. Thinking like I was the most unimportant person in the world wouldn't get me anywhere in this situation. I could either go into the hospital and face a very angry 7 year old like a very small immature man or run. It was as simple as that and both options seemed very compelling.

Sighing, my shoulders drooped along with my head. My feet moved themselves into the motion censored front door, I needed to grow up. The amount of times being immensely stupid almost got me killed was too high to count. Wait never mind, it was 27. If we're counting the day up to when I was old enough to make my own decisions.

What was I arguing with myself about? Oh yeah I was thinking about all if the petty little things I need to change in my being. I hate self reflection, it was the worst part of making any decision. This decision seemed like a bit more than vacuous though, it would be insignificantly more damaging to the one person who I trust or the people I confide in.

That may have been the decision I regretted the most.

I had never really talked to Dick or Bruce, never told him how I felt. I always found myself backing off on asking their opinion, I was too antisocial. NO!....I was too scared. I was too apprehensive to confer with someone I trusted more than anyone else, even Nico, because I may have been disheartened by the answer. I didn't talk to the people who's opinions matter the most too me because I was afraid that the infinite wisdom they held criticized everything that I stood for, everything that I was.

No I never like to be in the spotlight. Being under the sun meant that secrets came to light, people judged you on your actions. Everyone that makes themselves known gets burnt. Why was I thinking about this now? Why were these thoughts haunting my psyche at the moment when the only decision I had to make was to turn the knob of the door to my hospital room?

The knob turned slowly and the door squeaked as I pushed it open carefully, trying to not act like I was gone for...oh and it's been 8 hours. All the lights in the room were off or completely dimmed. There was no sparkling vampire of a friend glaring at me murderously in the middle of the room.

That was because he was sleeping on the hospital bed. I walked over to the bed side and I felt my lip quiver at the sight of him sprawled out onto the hospital bed. His midnight hair blanketed over his eyelids and some bang strands ghosted over his nose. He had always seemed so disconsolate, desolat, he never talked about how he felt and never spoke of his past. I had always wanted to know what he had gone through, his eyes had always shown more misery laced deep into his irises. Too much pain was in the past for him, I just hoped he had a better future ahead.

He had helped me so much, and I had left. I examined his face, he always held anger in most of his actions, to hide any source of vulnerability. His face that was always either laced with anger or showed absolutely nothing,  it was at peace. Yet wetness leaked out the side of his eyes, I swallowed the notion of peace. I had created an event in him that was far from what I would consider peace.

Guilt pooled in my abdomen, creeping it's way up to my throat and I suddenly felt queasy. Nothing that I did that afternoon ever created peace,  only chaos, sorrow and regret. I pushed the button on my ring and I found myself completely visible without the suit, heck I was still in the hospital gown. I fell into a chair with grey padding next to the bed and leaned my head against the back.

The reason anything ever happened to me was buried deep within several layered plans and stupid revenge plots. Everything I was and everything that I needed to be contradicted each other to where if I changed, I wouldn't be me anymore. In truth, I wanted to hide from the world, maybe runs from those who cared but if I did that the relationships that I had built and the any good I could have ever done would die off.

Now that would be murder


	16. How To Commit Arson: For Dummies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay.

"I will not stand for this clear abuse of power!" I protested strongly as I was practically forced out of the door. It was totally unfair and cruel for me to be forced into this. The thought of what I could suffer made my stomach twist into knots. Sure it would be less dangerous than some of the other stuff I had experienced, but it wasn't the physical effect it was the mental damages that would build.

"It won't be that bad." Dick rolled his eyes at my supposedly over dramatic reaction to the situation. I was doomed, if Dick didn't defend me against going into this hell i was doomed, gone, done for. He grabbed me by the arm, hand clenched around unnecessary expensive fabric, and dragged me to the waiting car.

I was pushed inside still clearly struggling uselessly and he slid in beside me giving me a look like i was a clear infidel. Well I was an infidel, but that didn't matter in this argument, it was that I was being put through an unnecessary evil. What was the point of it, developing skills to have copious amounts of interactions with homo-sapiens and potentially non-human beings? Gaining useless intellect on the correlation between two subjects that are totally unused in the average cantankerous 80 years of life? Oh wait maybe it was punishment for the excessive amount of running away and or getting injured.

If Bruce wanted me to learn about my wrong doings and the mistakes I had made, well this was perfect punishment. This demon infested intellect sewer that would put unnecessary amounts of stress into my conscious would obviously end in the flames made by the pits of hell. So yes, I held my 20 pound books tight to my chest and glared at the seat in front of me like it had just murdered my mother..and nope we're backing away, let's not have a mental breakdown in the middle of the car.

"I'm just saying that this is completely unnecessary to any cerebral development. The prospect of a system that judges a person's amount of intellect and potential based off a symmetrical plan and not based off a growth scale is insufferable and I will not stand for such actions. The actions of some uncaring corporate figures and educators that have been corrupted by the influence of a dangerous city will make this experience unreasonable and completely-" Dick glared at me from the other side of the car and cut me off with an annoyed tone.

"It's school Percy, the world's not going to end because you'll get bored in 4th period Algebra!"

"That you know of." He sighed and leaned back against the seat releasing the tension from his bones. Either he knew he had hopelessly lost that argument or he just didn't want to continue arguing with his 9 year old cousin. I'll go with the latter.

The car grew silent and I felt my head thump back against the seat's headrest with as must frustration as I could muster. I didn't need to do this, there was so much more important things I could do instead of going to school, like stalking people, or watching Sherlock on Netflix. I squeezed my eyes shut trying to block out all of my thoughts, it was something that I had to do, my opinion on the matter was worth about as much as Aibileen's from 'The Help', so little that my shits did not go into my boss's toilet. That is if Bruce was a woman and I was a female african american Alfred. Where was I even going with this thought?

I sighed again and opened my eyes slowly, letting the invading light fill my pupils. Let's not even get started on the suit that is required for the school, we don't want to go back to using food in such negative connotations. A pain had begun in the back of my skull, throbbing like a controlled pulse making my head spin and drawing in my focus. It was most likely the thought of school that had begun it, just the thought of what it was going to be like made me nauseous. let's also not forget that i skipped the entire middle school experience. Fun.

The pain got a tad heavier making me scrunch my eyebrows together in a wince every few seconds. The pounding got louder and my head swung to my chest, eyes blinking with wetness visible inside the. Why couldn't I breath? My chest seemed tighter and I swallowed down a groan of pain. My eyelids shut tightly together again and open dazed, the opened white. If you hadn't figured it out by now, i'm having a freaking vision, because life doesn't seem to want to give me a break in having a decent existence.

I panicked as my vision of the world faded into my subconscious. The view of a leather seat and a confused cousin turned to black as I was pulled in. Add that to the list of reasons my life sucks. Was it also to much to ask that I have a nice calm trip into REM? But no, as soon as my eyes opened into the dream world I was attacked with violent flashes of faces I vaguely recognised and scenes of places I had never seen. It was almost overwhelming, the intensity of the of each image seemed to hold some sort of scorn andor anger.

The images slowed to a stop on the familiar face of Batman. His signature scowl was in place onto his face, not letting any emotion show in his heavily guarded features. There was a sense of amusement hidden in annoyance as he spoke, but I couldn't perceive any words. His movements seemed to be jittery and non consistent, as if I was looking at him from under a strobe light and I only saw him in blinking periods. The normal flashes of images continued and some caught my eye, faces I had recognized as some of the other sidekicks, explosions, it all seemed to revolve around Superboy though. I saw a series of images showing him speaking, mouthing a word over and over, it was like the images earlier with Batman.

More weird things flashed in front of my eyes before I heard it, a silent whisper that seemed to grow in intensity as it was spoke over and over by different voices. _Cadmus_. It sounded like they were saying Cadmus, the facility for genetic research, but that didn't make any sense. Why would this be about Cadmus?

Then the images showed the facility, it was up in flames. Smoke billowed out of the windows in dark plumes as people waved to rescue workers frantically from their places on the third and fourth stories. The images then showed a figure grabbing the workers and bringing them up to the roof as two others joined him. From the use of a cape and the slightly smaller figure I could immediately tell that it was Robin. The other hero leaped with incredible speeds onto the building and Robin pulled him up, the only logical choice would be KId Flash based off the size. Then there was the other hero, buffer than both of the other two, then there was the give away of the use of water powers, oh I wonder who that is.

I had know slight indication other than the fire of why these three were together. Where was their mentors? All of it was happening so quickly, my thoughts were racing to analyze it all at speeds I didnt think were possible for a human brain. I felt my breathing become uneven and quickened in pace as I saw random scenes that I could barely make sense of. Flashes of faces in pain, scorn, faces plastered with grins, I didn't know what I was being shown. My eyes danced across my subconscious as a watched in a trance before it ended, and I didnt exactly approve of how it ceased. It was a face, a face upturned and gasping, features contorted with pain. The face was surrounded in gold light and it looked slightly panicked as the head came to looking straight. A second later he was enveloped completely and it disappeared from sight. It was my face.

I gasped for breath as I realised from the hold of my mind, my eyes changing back from their white glow to strong sea green irises. My eyes were wide as they snapped up to my cousin in front of me shaking me, trying to get me to respond from my trance. My vision finally cleared and I blinked up at him owlishly, swallowing back the urge to let out a groan of pain with the return of the pounding in my head that made it hard to even think. For some reason as soon as I stared up to him like a non coma patient he threw his arm around me in a hug. Was that really necessary?

"What the heck Percy? You weren't answering." I just continued to blink quickly, rolling his words around in my mind as if I could actually lucidly respond. "What was that?"

"Nothing." Was my automatic, shutting off all conversation response, yet wonder boy didn't seem to get the memo.

"That was obviously something! Your eyes were white." I glared at him warningly, if I said it was nothing, it was nothing. He actually seemed to back off a bit as he analyzed the intensity of my repugnant gaze and it's obvious repellent nature. My hands clenched and my arms crossed to purposely show my anger and disagreement, I didn't feel like explaining the whole deal of who killed who and why I had a horrible existence in the middle of a car ride to school.

"It was nothing!" Came the growled out reply. "It happens sometimes, nothing you need to worry about Wonder Boy." I squeezed my books closer to my chest, avoiding his gaze in the place right beside me. I felt him grip my shoulder and my eyes finally connected with his, mine filled with the confusion laced with bounds of unused anger, his only showing concern and curiosity. I wanted to blurt out all my problems right there, tell him all of what I had gone through, but my stomach clenched in the thought of conversing with him, telling him everything. I didn't know why I felt like this, so hesitant to ask him for help, to ask anyone for help, lie it was my curse and only I should deal with it.

So as my eyes met his briefly and fluttered back to the floor, my heart seemed to lower and my harmful gaze softened. I cursed under my breath as I sighed, my eye lids shut tight still trying to get enough clarity to think. Finally I looked to the set in front of me, not able to gain the strength to look back to the gaze of my cousin.

"Just not right now, it's not the time." I tucked my chin into my chest almost as if i was making myself microscopically smaller. I could see the school appearing into view from the thick fog as I stared out the window, my gaze anywhere but where it should be.

"When is the time?" Was the soft demand mumbled under his breath and I glanced to him out of my peripheral vision.

"When it matters." He opened his mouth to respond but promptly closed it after a moment of figuring out that he had nothing to say. Eventually we pulled up to the schools drivers drop off and as soon as the car stopped I jumped out still holding the books against my chest tightly. No one likes a fish, and thats wat I was, a 4 Ft 9 year in a sea of high schoolers that towered over me. I scowled as I realized this fact, oh how fun this was going to be.

The car door slammed shut behind me and my jaw clenched in what was some sort of morbid anticipation. Metaphorically, you could say I was about to be fed to the wolves. Without the Imagery, I was already dead inside waiting to be ripped apart by social standards and mid terms. Dick just followed me causally, he was tasked with showing me around the school but I had already seen the architectural plans for the building, analysing every detail and route. I had only missed a week, which was a good pace for getting stabbed if I do say myself. It's not like I would be totally lost in all my classes, I didn't even know my schedule...

I readjusted my tie with senile movements and walked to the office, not really hard to find even if I didn't already know where everything was, it had the large font of 'Office' in front of the door. So I just walked in like I wasn't a socially awkward 9 year old and smiled to the best of my ability, which I found out wasn't much ability. There was two woman behind a counter that was as tall as me and I had to wave to get their attention, as if I weren't reminded everyday about how short I was in comparison to the rest of the human race.

One woman with curly blonde hair leaned down over the counter and smiled at me sweetly, oh the interaction I was about to have was going to get awkward very quickly. This time it would not be my fault.

"Hello, are you lost young man?" My smile dropped a little at the tone of her voice, god I hate being right.

"I'm a new student, my name is Percy Jackson." I responded already dead inside, this was not going to be fun at all. I couldn't even come up with an excuse to use sarcasm.

Awkward silence filled the office as she closed her mouth and pursed her lips analyzing me, no doubt noticing the fact that I was miniscule and inside of a high school office meant for people who who were an older part of the human race. After a moment she hummed a disbelieving tune in the back of her throat and typed something into her computer. I stood there in front of the desk with my arms crossed as her eyes ran over the screen and I could see teeth clenching in thought.

"I kind of need my schedule," My voice cut into the intense look the woman was giving the screen. She glanced up at me and smiled again as if she was actually sorry for the wait.

"Of course," She pressed a button and a printer started up behind her. In the next moment she handed me a sheet of paper and I walked out of there so quickly that it may have been interpreted as rude. It was really a shame that I couldn't care.

The school was laid out as a four story torture device. One floor for each grade and I was silently adoring the fact that I was only in ninth. No stairs for me people, I don't do the stairs. My eyes grazed over the document, forcefully examining the information and committing it to memory. My scowl deepened.

"Who the fuck gave me PE?!" I whisper screamed trying not to crumble the paper.

Blowing a stray piece of hair out of my eyes, because I drew the line at gelling it back, I found myself in first period Mathematics sitting all the in the back corner avoiding all eye contact.

The teacher, whose name sounded like an insult for British people, pointed at the white board in the front of the room displaying one of the easiest equation I had ever seen. Patchy white hair framed his face and he wa dressed black slacks and a blue dress shirt and he was only around 50 but years of high school drama packed up to the roof showed in the sharp creased lines of his face. My thoughts ran off not even paying attention to my surroundings, everything in the entire book was already sketched into my brain. Somewhere in that process I had went to ranting internally about the unfairness of school to how it felt to love cake so much and then get beheaded by the French citizens.

"Mr. Jackson, maybe you can answer the question." The calling of my name brought me out of my oh so important thoughts. Apparently the teacher was doing that cliche action of calling out the kid in the class that is obviously not paying attention to embarrass him into submission. Fun time.

"Can you repeat the question again Mr. Muggles?" I asked acting slightly embarrassed. A chorus of snickers sounded out through the class and I just stared innocently at the teacher whose lip quirked slightly.

"What is Y in the Equation x squared times 5x equals 3y plus 9?"

"Y equals 5/3x squared plus 3 in linear form, 1/3 x squared plus 5/3 squared plus 3 in standard quadratic form." I replied instantly and went back to staring off into space letting my mind drift off to random topics.

The teacher, Mr. Muggles, lost his composer for a moment at my response but just blinked and continued to teach the class something completely useless. The cycle continued for another 20 minutes before the bell rang throughout the school and everyone jumped up from their seats. I instantly picked up my books and walked out not looking at anyone.

The other classes were almost as infuriating as the Algebra 1. Language arts was after that and all we did was read a Shakespearean sonnet. PE was third period and I silently screamed as the coach made us walk outside in 20° weather. I'm calling the child abuse card. 4th was lunch, probably the best class so far. 5th was Physical Science, 6th Spanish, also silently hiding the fact that I knew Spanish.

In conclusion, as 7th period came around I was ready to kill every single student and staff in the godforsaken building. I had to refrain my self from glaring at people to avoid becoming a murder suspect. The last class of the day was history and I blended into the back of the classroom. The teach smiled at me and called my name out. I mean did you have to?

"Yes?" I responded, mentally prepared to make a case of why I shouldn't have to answer any questions or introduce myself as a human right of the right to not self incriminate. Therefore I don't have to speak because you are government.

"Why don't you introduce yourself to the class." She responded with a slight smile, it was soft, almost like my mom's...i mentally stabbed myself, no mental breakdowns in public areas. I swallowed thickly and gaze at the rest of the classroom which was strangely silent in order to prolong my suffering.

All eyes were focused on me. I mean I was so close to being almost completely invisible. No other teacher had asked me to introduce myself, guess they could really care. This teacher, Mrs. Smithe, looked like she should be teaching at a preschool in Florida, not is stuck up prestigious high school in the worst city in the world. I mean she wore normal clothes, not the dress code blouse and skirt for girls, but actual jeans and a AC/DC T-shirt.

I stared at her for a moment longer, just contemplating more of my human rights, before I actually started to stand up. As a stood, the chair made a loud screech making me cringe slightly. She gestured with her hands to the spot beside her as I shuffled to the front of the classroom awkwardly. My eyes were to the floor and I almost flinched as she grabbed my shoulder lightly. Finally my eyes lifted off the ground and I light scanned the classroom almost forming a word with my mouth.

"I-I I'm P-percy." I stuttered out and the rest of the classroom rang out in snickers. I swallowed down the urge to run and stared back to the ground hoping the teacher would let go of my shoulder and end my torment. That did not happen.

"Why don't you tell us something about yourself Percy." I shut my eyes and silently cursed the world. Of course she wants me to speak, they always want you to speak. I closed my eyes tight and opened them glaring the ground.

What could I say about myself? There was nothing special about me that was worth mentioning that I could mention. Everything that made me the slightest bit important was my powers. It's not like I could just scream out that I was a secret superhero that could probably kill you. Well actually that would be good way to get people to leave me alone...

"I-I l-li l-like pie." Was the words that tumbled out if my mouth after 5 more seconds of awkward silence. The whole room burst out in laughter and I quickly made my way to my seat, hiding my head in the desk. I can't comprehend why I would say something so idiotic, it is just impractical. I just couldn't think, with everyone staring at me like I was just another piece of meat for them to tear up limb from limb.

I flinch this time as I felt another hand on my shoulder, the snickering resounding through the room were just beginning to quiet down. I felt my head lifting up to stare with wide eyes and burning cheeks at the apologetic history teacher. She was weird. Why would she embarrass me and then seem so apologetic. Isn't that like taboo in this city, being nice?

She gave me a twitch of her lips upward and I mirrored the action slightly. I put my head back into my hands after she turned away and bit my lip to keep from telling everyone to shut up. They were still laughing at my antisocial tendencies. Was the liking of pie really that hilarious?

"So this week we will be learning about the ancient Greek Empire." My head shot up and a large grin graced my face. Maybe school wasn't as bad as I thought.

A few hours after that thought I was referring everything I had ever said that was nice about that hellhole as I stared down at a pile of messy papers sprawled out on my blue comforter. I had practically shut myself in my room for the remainder of the night in defiance for the total unfairness I had to endure.

Life seemed so much simpler in my old life, a ram of memories hit my thoughts of a young hopeful child and not so hopeful conditions. The fact of the matter was that, until I was 7, I was alone. Don't get me wrong, she-my mom was the best woman in the world, she took triple shifts at the tiny candy store and hardly ever even slept. She thought that if she would get married, have a stable income, then she would be able to give me a better life, too bad her plan didn't work out the way she had planned.

She had married Gabe when I was 6, even then I didn't like him, there was something off. He actually seemed like a good guy at first, I have memories of him always smiling and playing with me like he just another child, surely that only lasted a few months. Three years ago I couldn't comprehend what Gabe was doing to my mom, all I knew was that there was a new person in my life who I would call dad. I don't think I started to grow up until he did the same thing to me.

I gripped my hair hard trying to get rid of the thoughts sprouting around like little poisonous weeds that wouldn't ever die. I didn't need to think about how everything that has ever gone wrong in my life was all my fault, I mean she married the man to mask my scent, to keep me alive. How was that not my fault? I groaned as I started to obsess over the very thing I didn't want to think about.

Then there was Chiron...I hadn't thought about the man in a long time.

That was when I wasn't alone anymore.

\---FLASHBACK---

_It was a cold night. The beginnings of spring had just begun to show and the air was brisk and fresh. The streets of Manhattan were lined with toxin filled coagulations of water but that didn't matter to the hundreds of cars lighting up 5th avenue, mixtures of bright headlights and red flashes were almost blinding. If you stared at them long enough they almost seemed hypnotising. I tried to focus on the cars, I really did, but as I walked along the sidewalk in an oversized black hoodie with my head positioned to the ground at 2am, all I could focus on was that maybe what I was doing wasn't the best option._

_I wouldn't put it in the view that I was running away, merely taking a hopefully permanent vacation from my problems. If no one noticed a 7 year old walking into downtown Manhattan, I doubt many would care about the absence of one. It may have been my own twisted logic, but I couldn't stay in that house any longer, each word was like a bite of venom and it felt so inviting to just walk away from there._

_My hand subconsciously rubbed a patchwork of bruises, colored in purple and black like some sort of messed up form of art. As I touched it I felt the ache, not like that of piercing pain that would occur as he touched a knife to the skin on my back, but a dull ache in memory of who was in control. A reminder of why I would amount to nothing like he yelled at me repeatedly. My hand brushed a scar too, a thin white line, a permanent reminder._

_I shivered and shoved my hands into the pockets of the hoodie, I wouldn't need that reminder, not ever again because I was never going back. I took a shaky breath and released it, watching the condensed air transform into white mist, I was never going back. I was never going back._

_Maybe I was free now, maybe I didn't have to suffer anymore, maybe I was selfish. If that was the case, what now? I was walking down a New York street and I knew where everything was and yet I had nowhere to go. Greatest escape the past plan ever right?_

_By some chance somewhere, somehow, I ended up sitting on a bench in the middle of central park. The trees had just began to grow their leaves, but most were still completely barren, but it was darker here, and quite. My knees were drawn into my chest as I watched the swingset sway carelessly in the wind, making creaking noises every turn. I don't know why my feet had chosen this place, it was the place that my mom had always taken me when I was younger. She would push me high up into the air on the piece of plastic held up on a metal chain, we would always smile when she came here. In front of the evil we had to endure her smile was always more forced. We didn't come here anymore._

_I felt a warm drop of water run down my flushed face and it took me a moment to realize that it was a tear, not that surprising. I furiously wiped it away trying not to show to myself that I was, in fact, a weak child. Apparently I didn't get the memo because my many more followed that. Soon I was enacted in quiet sobs._

_The bench squeaked beside me as another weight was added and I jumped and visibly seemed like a deer in headlights. Why might you ask why I look like a wild animal about t do major vandalism to someone's car? Well next to me was a man that was not there previously staring at me like I was some interesting specimen that he could dissect. He purposefully moved me out of his line of vision and looked back to where I was previously looking, the swingset. I was still frozen in fear, a random person sits next to you on a bench in the middle of a vacant park at 3am, I think my fear is rational._

_"Uh-wha-why-do y-you n-need something?" That's another thing, who in the whole entire 21 century wears tweed jackets? The man turned his head to me and I was fully expecting for him to tell me off or flip me the bird and leave casual New Yorker style but apparently I never expect the unexpected._

_"What makes us cry?" That caught me way off guard._

_"What?" I responded slightly confused._

_"What in the human nature makes tears fall?" He made a general gesture to the redness of my eyes and I took a moment before responding._

_"Many things make us cry." I muttered under my breath with absolutely no effervescence. "When things get out of control, when things are too controlled. We cry when when we are sad but we also cry when we are happy. You break down when things are stressful yet you can't seem to control all of those thoughts when things are too vapid either. People take blades to their wrists when feel alone and yet they seem to do the same when someone's there." I stared at him in the eyes. "Some people are sad over death, some are sad because someone has lived too long."_

_"So why are you out here crying at this time?" He eyed me curiously._

_"Because out of the two people I have left, one smiles to hide the pain, and one causes the pain. One has lived too long and one hasn't gotten to live yet." I pulled my knees closer to my chest._

" _You're awfully smart for a kid" He responded with a side smile._

_"If Innocence isn't ignorance then age is only a number." I reached a hand out to him._

_"Percy"_

_"Chiron."_

\---FLASHBACK OVER---

I hadn't thought about that man in a while, after I met him he found out about me running away and offered to let me stay with him. So going against every guide of how to avoid a child rapist, I accepted the offer. I ended up returning home 2 days later but he made me meet up with him once a week at the same place in the park to help me. Apparently he was a history professor, the things he talked about were like golden rays of light that I would soak up hoping it would transform that deep darkness I was in.

He died 2 months later and things returned to their normal hell with no end in sight.

I sighed and shook it all out of my head, nothing good would come from me dwelling on the past instead I thought about what really confused me, what had been filling my dam mind all day threatening to burst over. The vision.

"Leo. Show me Cadmus." I commanded to my AI. And he brought up the blueprints and the news.

"Cadmus is genetics lab under watch by the Justice League." The AI responded.

"This will either be very stupid or insanely necessary." I responded as I pulled looked at the electrical wire system leading in the building. An overload of energy may be due.

"I'll hope on the Latter sir."


	17. The Issues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never had therapy but I probably need it.

"Why don't you start from the beginning Percy." The woman flash me an ebullient smile and twirled the pen in her hand expertly, like a pen gymnast, in pen Olympics. I could have learned the art of pen gymnastics but then my streak of laziness would be broken. My head relinquished against the arm of the couch with a movement of vexation, a long, drawn out sigh escaping my lips.

"Well Mrs. Lance you see it all started when I was born-" she cut me off there.

"Not that far in the beginning. This is serious Percy, you need help," her voice came out softly. I closed my eyes and turned my head away before responding.

"I know this is serious, if it wasn't then I wouldn't be here. If They didn't think that my entire existence was serious, then I wouldn't be here on this couch being softly interrogated. Whether I need help with anything other than making sure i'm psychologically stable, now that's debateable." She scowled at my words, most likely mulling over the options of a psychological evaluation.

"Do you know who I am?" She looked generously curious, which was a strange sight on her face. Her eyebrows were slightly scrunched together, almost like confusion, but not. Maybe it was an attempt at looking innocent and filled with curiosity as a way to get me to open up. Then the changing the subject, leaving the wounds to heal and then returning again, this was all to psychological for my fragile mind to take. Then again, so was the prospect of having superpowers in a world filled to the brim with villains, aliens and superheroes then ending up living with a billionaire uncle who dressed up like a bat.

"If I didn't know who you are, I would disown myself." Her curious looked turned back into her usual poker face, which was much less disconcerting and I was grateful.

"Then you know why you being, as you put it, 'Softly Interrogated'." She put her hands us in quotation marks at that.

"Oh I know exactly why i'm being ever so gently coerced into spilling all the information I have to you Mrs. Lance." I grinned with vexation. "But what I can't figure out, is why Batman feels the need to hand me off to you to find out instead of softly interrogating me himself with his gruff dad voice."

"Well you did refuse to tell him. Could that possibly be a reason?" She inquired almost sarcastically.

"I didn't refuse to tell him," I felt my eyes roll, matching the tone of my voice. "He refused to listen to anything I had to say that wasn't related to his precious knowledge. I actually wanted to tell him what I know, but talking to him about something other than information on the next target of the Justice League would have been nice."

"Well that's the difficulty with getting information out of people who you are close with, that you know about other than a name and a grudge. Your thoughts become clouded, empatize and trust too much, not such a reliable story then." She responded.

"I guess that does make sense, a unbiased opinion on the situation." I concluded, biting my lip. She continued after a moment of my sulking.

"So," she twirled the pen in her hand. "Start from the beginning."

"I told you before, it really did start when I was born." She raised her eyebrows as I mumbled the words. "9 years ago, a man named Poseidon Jackson faked his death to the Titan gang in Gotham and moved to New York to live with his wife, Sally Jackson, and his son, me."

"A woman named Athena Chase found him, she was an active member of the gang. She wanted his help to bring it down, she had just had a daughter and was being forced to give her up for adoption to remain a member of the Titans. She was angry, really angry and threatened Poseidon and his family until he agreed to help her take down the gang. He would take out shipments in secret, cause chaos and eliminate members one by one. She would manipulate the system from the inside." I forced myself to swallow my emotions.

"The plan was flawed though. You see, every single member of the gang was a descendant of an alien race whose name is lost in time. Most of them have powers, psychics and seers. He was a manipulator of water and user of REM, the dream realm. It was only a matter of time before time caught up to him."

"What does this all have to do with you committing a felony?" She asked, cutting me off quite rudely.

"Shh. I still have 9 years left." I answered with about as much a condescending tone as a could conjure. She just sighed.

"When I was 4 months old he and Athena were killed by a man that goes by Kronos. If you couldn't guess by the name, he can manipulate time, by how much is unknown. Then Batman uncovered a money trail, someone who paid off my stepfather to kill my mother. The transaction was under the name Kronos."

"So this man that killed your mother and father, he's after you?" She questioned.

"It would seem so Mrs. Lance." I rubbed my red lined eyes. "I get these dreams, visions. They show me things. I can control where I go in my dreams, places and inside others people's dreams, and then sometimes the dreams control me and pull me in to see random places and things. That was until I started to see things that were important, my father's death, places and important events"

"You said initially that you started the fire because of fate." She commented.

"It was fate, the sidekicks were meant to find Cadmus, I saw it. It began months ago, the visions. They had to be there." My voice was unintentionally fragel.

"To rescue Superboy." I nodded.

"When I see it, I know that it's important, the visions wouldn't stop even when they rescued him." I continued.

"Why is he so important?" She asked.

"All of them are, the sidekicks. They save the world from an unbeatable force, a force that I didn't even understand. Robin, the son of the Bat, knowledgeable and full of mystery. Kid Flash, what holds them together with his consistent lightheartedness and sense for adventure. Aqualad, a strong and steadfast leader who isn't afraid to make hard decisions. Superboy, the brute strength with even an undertone of innocence. Miss Martian, the girl who may act helpless or weak at times of peril but has tremendous power behind her words, power she doesn't even know she has. Then there will be others, others that have not even come to the light yet. They are the only one who can beat them."  

"What force?" Her voice was forceful all the sudden.

"I can't tell you Mrs. Lance, if I told you them I would be manipulating the future, possibly making it worse."

"Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey?" I snorted.

"Glad I am in the presence of a another Doctor Who fan." She smiled softly, making me question how on Earth she could look so intimidating in costume, but then I remembered she could slam me into the floor in less than half a second.

"Your file said that possible ways to connect with you would include making references from popular television shows." That had me straight cracking up, holding my stomach.

"Never has a file ever been so accurate." I breathed in a broken up manner. She let an amused smile grace her lips, once again a strange sight to see in contrast to her usual stone cold killer matrix vibe.

After that, silence enveloped us. I twiddled my thumbs and stared at her expectantly. You see, this is what people would normally call awkward silence. I do not enjoy awkward silence in the slightest bit, maybe it's the awkwardness, perhaps it's the silence. I'm going to call a draw and say that is both. If that concluded the end of my hardcore therapy session slash soft interrogation then I would have to say that i'm relieved, though again, we come back to the part where it's awkwardly silent and no one knows what to do.  

"So Mrs. Lance, does his conclude my stern talking to for the day or will I be standing in the corner for the remainder of my childhood for doing what Fall Out Boy told me to do?" I shot out into the silence, raising my eyebrows. She stared at me for a second with unreadable features before nodding. 

I've wouldn't have darted out of there faster if Miley Cyrus was chasing me with a hammer.    
  
  
  
  


I found myself settled on Batman's twisty chair in front of the batcomputer only hours later. The batchair, as I had come to call it in spirit of things, was about three times my size. My feet hung off the edge, not even reaching the ground. I hated how pronounced my size was, like a small child, which I was. The light from the computer shined off my face, pronouncing my features in a blue glow. 

Night had fallen hours ago, the man who's chair I was sitting was had been gone of a multitude of the day, and I had been alone to deal with my thoughts. You see the problem with being socially awkward, no, socially incapable to the point where it was just depressing, was starting a conversation a conversation that you had meticulously planned to the last detail. Talking to someone around the same mindset and maturity about the last marvel movie and how the entire marvel universe connected, sure, talking to an adult about the future would make any highschool student literally run for the hills. For a socially incapable person such as myself, that was the equivalent of holding someone at gunpoint and realize that you have the wrong person at gunpoint, ending with you searching awkwardly in a crown with a gun looking who's brain to blow out. A crude equivalent, but no less accurate.

I still didn't think I was ready to have this conversation though. The process I had gone through to find the right words didn't even reassure me that I wasn't going to make a full of myself. I mean, I hadn't planned for hours to think of all the scenarios and how to ask him, how to convince him, I planned for months. I had wrote an essay on how to talk to people in awkward situations, not even for school, just as a reference to life. I had researched handling authority, read countless of books and spent hours watching Netflix to analyze how the younger generation handled adults. Most of them were total blowout tween dramas that were so inaccurate they almost made my brain bleed, but watch them nonetheless I did. 

I had meticulously planned everything, the talk, the kiddy league forming, all of it. Countless days were spent calculating multiple outcomes and different situations in account to the addition of each members personality and human error. In the end, Superboy stood tall and strong in front of his would be father and told him to move the frickle frackle out of the way. Not the way I expected it to happen, unforeseen, but not unwanted. Either than that, everything happened the way I saw, fate had played out.

Now all I had to do was tell one of the most powerful man on Earth to politely shove it up his non-hetero frickle frackle location and teach me how to be a real boy.  

What could possibly go wrong?

You know what, let's pretend those words were never thought, you didn't read that. Everything, if done correctly, could go wrong. In reality, I had estimated based on a worldwide survival outcome, my chances of dieing while compelling my argument were about 26%. The chances of me actually succeeding in my original goal without any repercussions or argument was less than my chances of pushing one of the wiggles off niagara falls in the middle him singing poker face by Lady Gaga. To bad it wasn't less than the chance of me actually feeling remorse for that action. 

I had a plan that was a bit more successful than the others in the estimation of success, but that may or may not have included chloroform, hydrochloric acid, three different brands of hard liquor and apple juice. If you were to ask why I even had a plan such as this one, all you had to do was check my Tumblr account.     

The mental issues of over planning a not so simple conversation and everything tumblr were irrelevant though. The good thing about today was that I had a plan in the first place and I wasn't chickening out. I had come to find that thinking about speaking and speaking were two contrastive adjectives, one is undemanding of too much effort and doesn't require you to go through much pain, the other makes you want to claw your heart out and feed it to the wolves. When you put on pen and paper, which I did, the words seem so natural, but then I know once I stand in front of him that I will loose my nerve. 

Well at least i'm not cliche, a young child wanting to become a hero. All that stands in his way is an sorta-overbearing-parent-on-certain-subjects-but-completely-ignores-you-when-your-problems-don't-relate-to-him-in-any-way and social anxiety. I mean who's wrote that before?

That was a rhetorical question by the way.

So I guess that I should observe what's on the computer so that iIl have something to do while I wallow in self pity. It really wasn't that interesting to be honest, just old case files. Well some of them were interesting. They dated back as far as 20 years ago, all solved by Jim Gordon back when he was just a detective determined to clean up the Gotham police force. Alot were petty thieves and murderers over stupid payback or the overused backstabbing to get all the money ploy. Some of them though, they were origin stories. 

I had read most of them, and there was a lot in the 20 years that the now commissioner Gordon had joined the force. From the beginning he was dealing with some big foes and gangs in the city. The story of how Jonathan Crane had become insane was his favorite so far. It was quite the depressing story. Daddy thinks he can cure the world of it's fear, uses his son as a test subject after he 'vaccinated' himself.  He ends up giving son way too much of the drug on his son as they were being shot at by the feds and son doesn't react too well. Doctors reported that, due to the drug, John see's his worst nightmare every waking minute of the day. 

Makes my daddy problems seem like the equivalent of being taken to a Justin Bieber concert by force. 

I was snapped out of my thoughts as the sound of tires screeching against metal echoed off the walls of the cave. I had to force myself to breath deeply, just to keep my heart rate from breaking my already damaged rib cage. It was show time, I was the protagonist of this lame life. Then again I was probably also the antagonist, and all we need now is a love interest... damn you! getting off track. 

There was no car door slamming shut, no hearable footsteps. There was nothing to warn me of the person standing behind the chair, but I knew he was there. Even in his own home-er, well cave, he didn't have the audacity to not seem all dark and mysterious like a freaking creep. As to better my score, I did not flinch one bit as he spoke.

"Is there a reason your sitting in my chair?" He demanded almost condescendingly in his gruff Batman voice, like a father asking their child why their entire house was in ruins, but with more masculinity. All I did was pull my legs off the sticky leather and pull my knees into my chest. I clicked the mouse and moved onto the next page of the file, before even glancing up at him.

"Is there any other chair in this entire cave that you would rather me sit at? Perhaps I can pull up the stool from the M.E. office. You know, the one that's covered in blood and other questionable substances." I turned my head away from him and stared back at the file, screaming in internal victory for not stumbling on my words and remembering the burn from a pre scheduled list of comebacks that I had made.

He gripped the back of the chair, viewing the file that was on display with squinted eyes, wow those masks that shape with eye movements were a well endowed investment. The dead body on display was gruesome, arms detached from sockets, blood coming out of orifices that even Jeffrey Dahmer "The Milwaukee Cannibal", wouldn't find appetizing. The girl's name was Leah, only 16. She was picked up as a hitchiker and then raped and murdered by the two men that were in the car. It seemed like the guys took there sweet demented time in killing her based of the body.

"You shouldn't be down here." He growled out after a moment of silence. "You shouldn't even be awake." 

"Yet here I am. Tada! Magic and unicorns. Would you like some cake to go with your miraculous discovery?" Also from the list of comebacks.   

He glared at me, his eyes burning down on me through the whites of his domino mask. A scowl looked like it was permanently chiseled into his features, set in stone like the dramatic stances of historic statues. I could feel my heart quicken slightly in response in being at the receiving end, but I would not, for the life of me, turn my gaze away. So that was what it was for only a brief moment in time, his burning whites against my raised eyebrows. It was only seconds of silence, but I couldn't breathe.

"Why are you down here Percy?" He finally asked, voice still deep and gruff as if he was growing.

I felt my tongue press against my teeth, anything to keep me from noticeably clenching my jaw. As I averted my eyes to remember how exactly I phrased the answer in all of those months if thought, the edge of a metallic aftertaste seeped into the back of my throat. My eyes found their target again after a moment, his scowl did not change, he didn't twitch the slightest bit.

"I've been planning on talking to you for a while," I began biting my lip. "I mean, I hope you have time. It's just, some words need to be said."

He eyed my over, analyzing my form and every single detail on my presentation along with tone changes in my voice. If anything, he wasn't clueless, he could connect dots I couldn't even see. I was kidding myself, he probably knew exactly what I was going to say. Then he would have a counter argument, eventually winning and crushing all of my hopes of actually getting anything accomplished.

Dick flung himself out the top of the bat mobile, landing neatly on the car's circular pad. There was more silence, not really awkward per say, but like a standoff of thoughts and controlled emotions. My eyes grazed over both of them, they didn't look to be to seriously injured. No cuts littered their skin, no blood came seeping out of hole in their suits, the kevlar paddings that hide the vital areas in a protective shell weren't damaged or dented by a bullet. They must of had a tame night compared to what they usually face on their nightly outings, which included stray gunfire and a multitude of injuries. 

He was standing by Batman for a few second before he even noticed me in the chair, very perceptive Wonder Boy. He removed his mask and opened his mouth like a fish, the lack of words on his tongue becoming emphatic with each passing moment. Bruce dragged his cowl to his shoulders, revealing a head of inky thick tousled hair and eyes noticeably sunken yet unrevealing. I turned around and fully straddled the form fitting black chair that towered over me and silently begged him to concede to the best of my ability. 

He glanced over his shoulder to Dick, whose mask was now in his hand, and nodded his head toward the stairs. Dick followed his gaze and nodded, conveying that the 'Bat Speak', as people referred to it as, was received. There was a long time spent in silence as he striped out of his suit and elegantly climbed the staircase unlike anyone should be allowed to at 3 am in the morning. 

I then had his full attention, which was one of the most hardest things in the world to accomplish. 

"The dictionary definition of a hero is a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities." I began, my voice uncharastically low. "I want to help, and I know that the definition of hero is so much broader than that vague lackluster idea. I never really want to be recognised, I don't think that I would ever be able to withstand the pressure of so many eyes focused on my actions, but I want to help."

He eyed me face, analyzing what my intentions were from the depth of my features. The only thing I had to hide hadn't even happened yet, so the only intentions I had was to not let the world be destroyed. I needed his help though, I needed him and I hated that I couldn't do on my own will. 

"What is it exactly that you want?" His voice was low, only a step away from being explosive.

"I want you to train me." It came out soft but firm and about as confident as I could manage. 

I didn't know what I was expecting, maybe for him to explode, maybe for him to straight out tell me no and shut me off completely. In full belief, I was ready for a screaming match, a fight. Calculations all led to the most likely possibility of failure, some to total disaster. I had created contingency plans for the contingency  plans of my contingency plans, but most if not all simulations showed that I was a giant wimp and I would never be allowed in the basement again.

He just stared at me though, thinned lip and narrowing eyes. I found myself holding my breath, staring with the closest thing to fear into his blue eyes. Without his cowl pulled down, he almost looked human, with vulnerabilities and terrors keeping him up in the night like the rest of us. The lines on his face were still hard and cold, but talking to a regular guy seemed a lot better than talking to an unbeatable myth in the night. Was it? I still don't know.

"Your strong Perseus," he finally spoke, his voice still gruff and deep. "You understand events better than I did at your age, and your one of the most intelligent children I've ever come to know,-"

"I am quite pleased with your flattery." I muttered under my breath.

"-but you don't want to be dragged into this world. Finish highschool, make connections, have a life."

"The way you say it makes it seem like I don't have a choice." I crossed my arms, unyielding to agree.

"You always have a choice." That left us in silence.

I needed this, to win just this once against my would be oppressor. So yeah, defence was strong in this one, because I can be Yoda if I want to be Yoda.

"In Greek mythology, there's this hero, kin of Zeus and one of the most famous ever known. Killed the immoral monster with a head if snakes, he rescued the princess Andromeda and was known throughout Greece." I started recalling the story.

"My namesake, my mother didn't choose him for my name because he was a hero though, she chose him because he survived." I looked back up into his eyes and was surprised to see general interest.

"You and I both know that I'm already in the rushing rapids up to my neck. To run from it would be foolish and put me in even more danger. I'm different in a world of people who don't like different. So I'm already here, I the closest thing to a hero that I can see, but I will inevitably die if I can't swim." At this point my voice was commanding, and I felt something like anger bloom deep in my ribcage.

"So, in favor of not dying." I pause and glared up at him. "Train me."

"The way you say it makes it seem like I don't have a choice." He responded using my own words. It voice was still set in a low growl, but somewhere deep in my heart I felt an ounce of humor and sarcasm that provoked the beginnings of a grin.

"I wonder why that is?"

We were in another round of silence, holding my breath again as he analyzed me with blank features. A silent standoff, battle of wills.

"Meet me down here after school tomorrow and we'll discuss things  further."

"Thank you."

"Go to your room and sleep, you have classes in the morning."

_Closest thing to a 'your welcome',  I was ever going to Get._


	18. The World Goes To Miscocieved Frozen Yogurt Emoticon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I the only one who never had the problem of thinking it was something else other than a pile of shit?

So, according to ancient laws, there is a limit on how many curse words can fit into a sentence. Someone, probably Plato or some other philosopher that I can't think of at the moment, put a restriction on what makes up a sentence and the words stuffed into that sentence. This is where my problem lays, I was never one for following the rules, or like any kind of authority once so ever.

I could cuss filthier and more colorfully than a truly american pirate, or I can recite the long, soul draining tail of how it all went wrong. I could curse my entire existence till my mouth goes numb or I could tell you how I almost died, again. I actually can't decide.

Now I know what your thinking, everything will be the cliche hero antic and you will come close to death in the middle or your character arch just so you can progress into the story and grow into your climax all the while fighting the hardest conquest you have faced yet! And I'm here to tell you, yes, because for some reason I am a self destructive idiot as much as I am a know it all nine year old with recessive ego qualities.

So, this is the story of how I die. Well not right now, but I guess it will happen sooner rather than later and it sounds cooler than the story of how I survive and...you get the point. Anyway, like all tragedies, it started with the cruel subjectification of juvenile species in an environment that's fitted best for only a fraction of the population. In other words, school, the horror started at school.

Gym to be specific.

The lockers rattled sharply as a hand forced my head against them and the back of my skull stung on the impact. To be honest it caught me off guard to be slammed against a piece of metal, painful also, and i'm not scared to admit it. My eyes wandered upwards slowly up the pounds of muscles towering over me, quite intimidatingly if I was to go into detail. A small nine year old in a gym of people over five years older than me, this my friends, this is what can go wrong. A major height difference that was just plain unfair.

I met his almost too smug gaze with nothing more than defiance, which no doubt angered him. Oh the meat suit that was Theo Drake, or as I liked to refer to his as, Poly. You know, every person has that one guy. The Jock, dating the head cheerleader and sharing all of his life on his twitter account by taking pictures of his muscles and making bad jokes about the male anatomy. The guy that pushes the younger members of society against lockers just to look cool in front of his friends and show the other male his place. I'm pretty sure there is zero character depth there, like no drive or reason for his horrible choice of personality. If there was anything in his tiny little heart, my money's on daddy issues, even I had daddy issues.

"Hello Poly, steal any candy from little children today?" He snarled and griped my gym shirt tighter pulling my non existent body weight up the locker like I was an inanimate weight lifting exercise.

"I bench 200, you bench marshmallows. I wouldn't be talking squirt." his grin widened and he pushed me farther into the lockers.

"1, i'm pretty sure you just made a reference to spongebob, which by the way,not shaming you for watching. 2, what does squirt even mean, it's not an adjective or noun, it's a verb. As in, don't squirt the water. I mean would twerp be better? 3, I happen to love marshmellows-"

"Is this a face that cares?" He taunted cutting me off.

"You realize that I have no idea of idealizing what you care about through your facial structure?" I smiled innocently.

Obviously his only feasible response was to punch me in the ribs. Poly may be a jackass, but he's also the school's quarterback and heavy lifting champion, so he has to muscle power to back it up. He dropped me to the floor and griped my hair in a tight fist.

"If this gets any more cliche, I will not be able to survive my life choices." I coughed.

"Listen _twerp,_ you even glance at my girl again and I will crush your skull." he snarled into my ear.

"Do you realize I am a 9?" I scoffed, elbowing him sharply in the chest.

He released his hold on my hair ruffly and I stood slowly glaring at him. I brushed off my crinkled shirt and leaned back against the locker with the strongest source of indignation I could muster. Oh he may have been the fresh meat of bull but he was as about as bright as a jellyfish. The lack of area for a brain was one of the most compelling similarities.

"Thank you for considering the word use, fits me better." I smiled brightly.

"I will break you." he snarled back.

Well wasn't that pleasant? I wouldn't care about threats under normal circumstances, but, then again what in Theo was considered normal circumstances. He just didn't care about the things I cared about. He could keep his promise on breaking me just fine without caring what was to come his way. In his mind all that mattered was the social order, the fishes trembling in fear in his power and the sharks laughing along with him.

I wasn't necessarily scared of him, I wouldn't forgive myself if I was scared of a teenage boy with a too tight of a jock strap. But he had always unnerved me, jumbled up my emotions to the point where I was over thinking the meaning of life.

"Theo, leave the guy alone. You're already on parole." a new condescending voice rang out through the decaying gym lockers.

My eyes ran over his form quickly, and was he a sight for sore eyes compared to the hockey puck looming over me. He was tall, and large, very large. I'm my time in this school I hadn't met him, then again, I only new about 20 persons name total and that was just from unrelieved stalking.

His hair was tangled around his head in a light brown frizzy mess, dark aviator shades casting a cool kid look over his eyes. In completion with the black suit and tie dress code he looked like the typical semi nerd, semi 'I sit at the popular table worship at my feet' teenager you see in mean girls 2. At least he seems to not want my guts spilled out onto the locker room floor tiles. That's an upside.

"Awe come on Ty, just having a little fun." Ty raised his eyebrows at Theo's version of fun.

The bell pierced through the ever loved conversation and that jackassical excuse for the human race had the audacity to flick finger guns my way before falling through the locker room door. Character development at least.

I closed my eyes and slid down the lockers quite pathetically as everyone cleared out to their next class. I had class to, but to be honest I gave no feculence or foul excrement about math at the moment. I just sat by myself in the silence for a few moments cursing out every member of the human race for existing. At least I thought I was alone.

"Sorry about him, sometimes I wonder why I even try." My eyes snapped to him as he closed in on my location.

I gazed up at him confused, why the hell would he even care. He wasn't supposed to care, this was Gotham, it held the worst people in the world and I'm pretty sure he wasn't supposed to be nice. To be honest I don't even think I would be this nice.

He held out a hand to me and I stared at it hesitantly. After a moment I took it and he pulled me off the ground with some amount of strength that I was sure was illegal, or just physically impossible for a highschool student. I think I got some sort of nausea just for that.

"I'm Tyson but you can call me Ty. Luckily I got stuck with the more fortunate name, my brother on the other hand...his full name is Polyphemus." My mouth twisted into a smirk.

"My full name is Perseus, but those who currently don't have a vendetta against me call me Percy." I replied with a bitter edge.

Tyson laughed, and at that point I was convinced that this guy had some ulterior motive, no one was this nice. Not in this city. But the laugh, I could tell it was genuine, the shades hid his eyes but I knew that the sides of his eyes crinkled as he released the sound.

"Well it was nice to meet you Percy, no matter how we met." He was about to walk out of the door when he suddenly twisted back around. "And Percy, if Theo gives you any trouble, come to me. Okay?"

Somehow he had rendered me speechless. That was quite the accomplishment as I never shut up.

"Um, sure." he gave me a mock salute as he walked out and the mahogany door slammed behind him.

I put my face in my hands and the sound reminiscent of a dying whale escaped my lips as my head slammed back into the lockers. 

I would never pretend to understand how the brain works, in all its twist and folds, the dark places that no one ever likes to visit. I don't think I wanted to understand why people did things either, what happens to them to make them be a psychopathic killer, or just another bully pushing you up against the lockers. When that happens, when you understand what people are and why they do what they have done, you can no longer blame them like the rest of the world.

I couldn't blame Poly for what he is, not really. His mother was killed in front of him when he was six by his dad. He was in an out of foster care for three years, alone and living with people who didn't exactly care about him, wouldn't get teary eyed if he had slit his own throat. Now he lived with Gotham's elite, surviving in an environment made up of people that only cared about him if he had a dollar sign above his head. He might be a major jerk, wanting to push other to the ground so that they knew their place, but he didn't have a choice. In his life it was adapt to live with the wolves around him or become their next meal. I knew a little bit about fighting alone...

His brother on the other hand, I did not hack into his file, but I assume he got the long end of the stick.

The more I find what makes people the way they are, why they do what they do. It no longer becomes dark against light, order fighting chaos, it's becomes the same people fighting themselves in different bodies. I desperately want to understand what makes people the way they are, but at the same time, it unnerves me to know that everything is not as simple as it seems.

 It not just that a man is evil, it is that the man has been beaten down his whole life, made fun of and told that he was weak. Then reacting with every single action possible to become strong, no matter how questionable, because he needed to prove them wrong, because they were what made him that way. It's not just a nice man, it's a man that grew up in a trailer at the edge of town. A man who wanted to follow his dreams, but learned young that it was impractical and that few seldom even got what they needed. A men with parents that just wanted him to be happy, that told him they would support him no matter what, even though they didn't have much. A man that found that the only thing that mattered, I mean really mattered, was the ones around you that were nice back to you. 

No, because when it's no longer black and white, all you ever see again is gray, either with not a single soul to blame for their actions, or to blame everyone that had ever touched you. After that, I found their was no going back to seeing two dimensional faces in a crowd. Soon, nothing really feels the same. 

Classes burnt out quickly, lost their fire within a month of attending. They may have never had the fire to begin with, just an illusion of light from the prospect of learning. Learning, that was something I enjoyed, but being around teenagers who, despite being older, don't understand that the social hierarchy never mattered. People who claim they have matured and are grown up, then crumble at the act of real responsibility, blaming everyone but themselves for their failure. The ones that cry over broken hearts for too long, and never understood that the ones they gave their hearts too, never cared about their love in the first place. But that wasn't just school was it? No that was life. 

Maybe it was because I was nine, not old enough to understand why things had to be the way they were, but how old I was never mattered did it? And really, it didn't matter if it made sense or not, nothing would ever make it change.

I slammed my door shut, maybe a little too hard, but I didn't care. I was angry, angry at the world for being they way it was, angry at the people who didnt understand, angry and frustrated with no one to blame, because the only fault was mine for being angry. I clenched my fists into balls and my nails dug into my palm trying to stop thinking about everything. 

My head told me nothing really mattered, that I would never make a difference anyway, things never changed as long as they never learned what from the pasts of others. My head told me that there would always be people in the world who thought different, that the world was doomed from birth to fall and die just as everything else does. But then again, my head tends to be kind of a jackass.

My hand combed through the thick black hair that I refused to gel back as I released a shaky breath, opening my eyes to the room close to near darkness. Alone at last. Except I wasn't alone. My body went ridged and the air caught in my throat.  

A silhouette made itself known to my eyes placed in my favorite black twisty chair. I mean, there was like four other chairs in the room alone, not even counting the bean bag, was it customary that someone sit in that chair? To be honest, as I stood frozen in the dark, I was more peeved than anything.

Then the person turned their head, then I would admit I was a little hesitant to confront the dark shadowy figure that could potentially be here to murder me. The dark figure stood up to full height, which wasn't really that height to my great relief, and walked into the light. At this point I really wanted to make a Doctor Who reference.

"I assume you're the son, huh." The person walked fully out of my favorite brooding corner-an holy crap she looked like she choose the blue pill. "I'd thought you'd be, you know, more."

Oh she did not go there.

"Well hello to you miss monochromatic, glitch in the matrix?" I put my hand dramatically on my hips. Emphasis on the point and all.

To be honest, she looked as if high school musical had become a gothic outlet. She had spiky black hair that framed her face and a spiky leather jacket that held so much teenage rebellion, it would sell on the black market for a human soul. I mean, the whole getup had me reling to get enough sarcastic comments ready.

"Where do you think I got my style? Barney and friends?" Oh you could just hear the dangerous edge that lingered on her comment.

 Black heels clicked softly onto the floor as she took steps towards me. To be a decent human, I decided to meet her halfway. I was met staring up into fierce electric blue eyes.

 "Hello there Thalia, I thought we would never have the opportunity to meet" If she was surprised at me knowing her name, sh didn't show it in her feral grin.

"So, I guess we don't require introductions." She shrugged.

"No, not really, but it's always nice to know why someone breaks into your house and waits in the darkest corner of your for the sake of feeling awesome." I relented. "Not judging by the way, we all have our hobbies. I stalk people, you sneak out of dark corners.

"You don't know a thing about me." She scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. I just raised my eyebrows.

 "Thalia Grace, 16. Well I mean you've been pulling some Edward Cullen shit, but yes, you're physically 16. Date of birth unknown to any database, and you harness the powers of electricity."

 To be honest, it didn't take very long to be up against the wall with a sword to my throat. You haven't known real fear until you have a mean teenage Goth push you onto a wall with a sharp object to your throat. 

"Come on, I haven't even got to Star Wars puns yet." She pushed the knife further into my skin and raised her eyebrows. 

"You know, if your going to kill me, can you do it soon? I have a test in math tomorrow and I'm already dead inside." She made a frustrated noise akin to two birds fighting an alligator and took the knife off of my neck violently. 

"I'm not here to kill you, I need your help." She sighed like she was ashamed of herself, not going to lie, that sort of hurt.

"You must be truly desperate, what could you possibly need that I can help you with?" I answered quite flabbergasted.

"I'm going to kill Kronos." My head snapped up and my mouth shut off any supernatural reference that would come crawling out of my mouth. She was kidding, she had to be kidding. 

There was a lot of silence as I looked at her frozen once more. Her gaze was stern and serious, she was serious. 

"How can I know to trust you, I only know you by your file. I was an idiot once, I don't feel like going down that hole again." I finally said. 

"I don't know you, only heard a couple of stories, but from what I can tell there's no room for worry. You're already an idiot, being one a couple more times isn't going to change things." I shut my eyes tight and tried my hardest not to make a rash decision. 

Oh well I tried.

I reached a hand out for her to take and she took it.

"You stay in wonderland, and i'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."

I pulled her to the edge of the room, finally turning the light on, before pulling up a string to reveal a typical board filled with pictures and red string. The product of hour of boredom and an obsession.   

"Did you draw a mustache and devil horns on the lord of time?" She asked in disbelief.

"Don't  judge me."


	19. Jokes On You Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Craps about to go down.

  
I felt like I was suffocating on my own breath, unable to exhale and the air catching painfully in my throat. My lungs burned in a fiery compression, eyes widening in panic as I realized what was happening.

Golden light was shrouded around me in painstakingly bright flashes, blinding me from the rest of the room. It grew brighter and the ringing in my ear grew louder. I felt myself scream, but I could not hear it. I felt the tears on my cheek, but I couldn't open my eyes enough to let the floodgates open.

The light filled the room, searing past my eyelids like they were only glass. The world was ending and I couldn't catch a single breath. All I wanted to do was breath.

Suffocating.

_Can't breathe._

I was shaking as I sat up in bed. My heart beating faster than I thought was humanly possible, pounding painfully against my ribcage. The first thing I felt as my thoughts cleared for the smallest of moments was that I could breathe, but it _hurt_. It ached to take in the air as if I had actually held my breath.

Cold sweat traced a line down my forehead and pooled around my neck, making my limbs stick to the comforter in an unfitting manner. My head was still reeling, even a dull ache sprouted like a weed in the back of my skull. My breath still came in short pants, eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room as if I had been in light. Everything had felt so _real._

It was terrifying, derived of all all the things I used so much, all I could do was _feel._ Feel the burning light against my skin, and the rearing in the ringing in my ears. I could still feel, feel the vibrations in my chest, the fear from the shaking of my hands. I could still feel the realness as I collapsed back in a heap onto my pillow, the warm fabric attaching uncomfortably to the back of my neck.

My heart never slowed.

I was too focused on counting the beats of my heart that I didn't register the padding feet down the hall. My breath caught again as the door opened slightly, to wear only a sliver of light peeked through the crack. It creaked open further and all I did in response was try to hide my flushed face under my forearm.

"Are you alright?" A soft voice shrouded though the room, and there was plenty of ways I could think of to answer the Wonder Boy. 'Do I look alright?', 'To be honest, I was pretty sure I died there for a second' and my personal favorite 'F*** off!'. None of which were spoken.

"Yeah..." I responded between heavy breaths, my chest rising visibly.

He came in farther and sat on the edge of the bed, dipping it down stiffly. I still didn't look at him.

"I heard screaming." I would have shrugged, but it was like all my muscles had atrophied.

"Yeah..."

Silence.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Was the first thing he said after a moment.

I gnawed on my lip at the thought. That was possibly the last thing I wanted to do, spill all my secrets after one measly nightmare depicting my death. Of course the only reason why it was measly was because it wasn't a nightmare. It was what was to come and it showed itself behind my eyes more often th I would like. So no, he didn't need to know that.

"Just a nightmare, it's not that important." I murmured into my forearm.

"It sounded like it was important."

Something boiled inside my chest, made for even more constricted breaths. I was trying my best to not snap at him, tell him to leave in a manner that would be considered slightly rude.

"I-I I don't think you would be the best person to talk about it with." I regretted the words as soon as they came out of my mouth and cringed. My arm moved away from my face to finally look at him, and even in the dark room, I could see the hurt echo across his face.

"Oh... um, well-."

"I didn't mean it like that, it's just something that doesn't necessarily include you. I don't know if i'd ever want to talk." I stuttered out in a bout of drowsy rambling. Dick moved off the bed and went back over to the door. Looking back over his shoulder before he grabbed the edge of the door.

"We all get nightmares Percy, but I know the ones that hurt the most are always the ones we need to face." I swallowed at that, not wanting to meet his eyes in the slightest degree.

Nothing hurts more than what you know to be the truth.

"Wait!" Dick turned back around from the door to face me. Sporting a look of 'What do you want, make up you mind ignorant child.'

"I-I need to talk to you in the morning, before school. Nows not the time, but I think you should know somethings. About me, I-I just need you to know." His face softens a bit.

"Yeah," He says after a moment. "Yeah, that sounds like a plan."

"Good night." I called out, I got no response.

My head slammed into the soft cotton pillow, having me wish that it was something a little harder than fabric.

The next morning I was true to my word, not running away at the last moment, no inexcusable excuse for ditching out of any sort of social interaction. Nope I was going to face this head on like a man. Like I person of the male gender. Like a normal person within the homo sapien species. Oh who am I kidding, like a 9 year old with semi-crippling social anxiety and some other deep issues that shall not be named.

I twisted the faucet until a steady stream of water was rushing through it and I splashed the cold liquid unceremoniously onto my face. I ran my hand through my knotted hair and stared at my face with only three thoughts. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him and I didn't know how dominant that part might be that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

Four thoughts, there were four. Last one being I was so screwed.

And then I was in front of him, standing in the doorway of my room simple observing as he sat on the bed-like the night before- with crossed arms and a scowl. I didn't say anything, didn't do, not moving a muscle or blinking. I didn't owe him anything, owed noone anything, but he needed to know. It was hard though, to finally move from the doorway of the room and sit across from him in the black computer desk chair. I couldn't help that the movements were despondent.

My hands settled in my lap and I blew out a breath of stale air. Dick remained the same, only raising his eyebrows.

"What do you know?" I asked him first. I had no idea what Bruce had told him, what he knew about who I was.

"I feel like that's the question I should be asking you." He murmured under his breath, still visibly peeved.

"Just answer the question." It came out harsher than I had meant it to. He glared at me through the tops of his eyes.

"You want to know what I know?" He nearly shouted, I made a vague noise of conformation. " Well heres what I know. I know that your name is Perseus Achilles Jackson. You are nine years old and currently living in a guest room at the Wayne manor because you mother was tragically killed by your Stepfather."

He got up off the bed and I wheeled back in the chair.

"I know that you had discovered our secrets before you even came to live here, in the hospital. I know that you know everything about us, what we do and what we have gone through. I know that you have some sort of power that allows you to see the actions and the past of others."

I glared up at hm with just as much intensity as he glared down.

"And last of all, I know nothing about you." He spat the words out like they were poison. "I don't know what you are like other than your file on the computer screen. We ride together to school and then you lock yourself inside this room shutting everything else out, everyone out."

He backed away from me and gripped the sides of his head.

"You're just a stranger to me that lives down the hall."

I felt like that I had been stabbed in the chest. My lip quivered as I stared up at him, not letting my eyes reach his face. If I looked him in the eyes he would see how weak I was. As I felt the tear sting behind my eyes, I stood abruptly from my seat and marched with thunderous stomps to the balcony.

I threw the door open and stepped outside, feeling the cold morning air whisk over me as I leaned over the railing to view the steep drop and misty Atlantic waters. I knew that Dick had followed behind me slowly, anger most likely turning to curiosity. That was until I pulled myself on top of it, and viewed the panic in his features. I stood up slowly and he started running towards me.

It was too late, I had already fell backwards into the water, looking to him as I fell and he tried to reach for me over the edge. The balcony was quite a ways away from the water, falling into it straight would hurt like hell, but it would never hurt for me.

I let go of all the air in my chest and breath in the cold currents, watching as Dick didn't hesitate to dive head first into the cold water. I sunk to the bottom, my back against the sand below, seeing the water break surface from something other than a wave, and the then Dick kicking down furiously towards me.

I made the currents pull him down to the bottom, right above me and he was thrashing furiously trying to get out of the waters hold. I touched him lightly on the shoulder and he calmed enough to open his eyes, a vibrant blue lace with fear. They met with my calm sea green.

A large pocket of air surrounded us and he fell to the ground breathing hard. He then looked around him and, realizing I was keeping the water at bay, made a sound indignation in the back his throat. My face was stoic and my voice lacked all emotion except spite.

"It's funny what we do for total strangers."

He clenched his jaw and I watched some of the anger drain from his limbs, falling the waterless ocean floor like he had no energy left. It was a moment before I spoke again.

"I know that i've been distant, I don't talk to you as much as I should have, and you only know what I've been through and not who I am." I curled my legs into my chest. "But if you knew who I really am along with what i'm going to do-."

I looked him in the eyes from his place on the shore.

"I would be no better than the scum you cleaned off the streets at night."

I brought him back to the balcony and he followed me into the room in a state of bewilderment and vexation.

"What was that?" He hissed. I sat back down on the computer chair and spun around to the deck, not willing to face him.

"You wanted to talk, we talked." I grunted.

"That was not a talk, that was a one sided argument of you denying me answers." He raised his voice.

"I owe you nothing." Was the venomous reply.

"I deserve to know." He shot back after a moment of silence and I tried my hardest to not lose it there.

"You do, or at least you did. I was going to tell you too," I cocked my head upward to him. "But you can't get it through your thick head that maybe it's hard for me, hard for me to tell you. Not because it's my life and my secrets, but because it's painful and i'm scared of what I am you pompous asshat."

"We all get nightmares Percy, your no different." He forced out darkly.

"Get out." I muttered

"What-"

"Just get out!" I screamed. We were silent for a moment before I took a breath and continued with more controlled anger.

"Just, just leave. We have school in half and hour and i'm not even dressed." I deflated into my chair as he slammed the door shut behind him, wondering why the world had to be such a fumbling mess.

I smoothed out the dress shirt that hung loosely on my chest, if it was tighter, you would see the outline of ribs. My hands clenched as I observed myself in the mirror, pointing out every single thing wrong. I knew that as we lived our lives we tended to dehumanize ourselves-thinking of our own bodies as a thing and not as a part of you-but staring at myself now, that notion didn't help one bit.

I was already jittery from the conversation with Dick, if the pounding in my chest had any recollection, and the only thing I wanted to o today was sit and mope at the unfairness of life. To be honest though, that was all I ever wanted to do, today was no different.

So the car ride on the way to the academy was took in silence, neither of us even staring at each other. The only thing I was capable of at the moment was staring-with brooding fashion- out the window. On some deeply buried level, I knew that Dock words had rang true. He had been distant, holed up in his room worrying about what he saw in his dreams and only wondering what anything could have meant. He had no right to judge him though, he didn't know what he was facing and what he was going though. Then again, the only way he could understand was if I told him.

I clutched my books closer to my chest at that thought, he couldn't know, he would only get in my way. Looking back at him for the first time in the entire car ride, I knew that no matter how much his name suited him, he didn't deserve to get mixed up in all of my mistakes. No, Robin had his own future in front of him. Not a very nice one, but at least h had a future.

And then the cycle repeats, like any other weekday. Only this time, no actual classwork was getting done, my thought were to distracted. Then I had the strangest feeling, not a good one in any sense of the term. Just, unease. Paranoia. It had me looking over my shoulder, planning different escape routes instead of listening to my teacher rant about how love wasn't real, for no reason other than it didn't feel right.

So when the unmistakable sound of the fire alarm sounded, I flinched violently in my seat as the entire class jumped up. The crude ringing was near deafening, raking in my ear not incomparable to nails on a chalkboard.

We were ushered outside in a panic, forming large groups more than 50 yards away from the school, waiting for the announcement to return instead of prancing about in the winter chill. The announcement never came, 20 minuets outside and not a single person knew what was happening. There was no fire, and if it was just a drill then they would have already resumed the classes.

So why the hell were we out here?

I got my answer as something straight out of a Tom Cruise movie made it's way into my life. Men clad in black appear around the other side of the building, and the outline of guns were unmistakable. At this point it seemed that everyone in the student filled crowd broke out into panicked whispers, coming closer together. A few people even screamed, but what else did they expect in one of the most dangerous cities in the world?

I forced the lumped down in my throat, searching the crowd for Dick, for anyone that looked even slightly familiar. I seemed to be hidden by the mass of students, the tall bodies all around me swallowing me whole. I felt my heart flutter, quickening as the people around me pushed me to a point where I couldn't even see.

Then there was a pain, in the back of my head, like a constant pounding that seemed to bloom from the depths of hell. A dull ring began in the canal of my ears, and I clutched my head in pain shutting my eyes tight. It could be happening now, it just couldn't.

My breath caught in my chest as I hunched over, nearly falling to the concrete and only catching myself with a single hand. My head swarmed with images akin to channel surfing, flashing in and out of my view to fast to comprehend. That is until it ceased on a scene, a face, a smile.

 _"...Joker's escape from Arkham..."_   

_A man strutted across the floor, holding himself like he owned the world. A wide grin plastered on his face as he curled his long, spider-like finger, in what nothing but an innocent agenda. His face pale white, unnatural, FREAK._

_He threw his head back and croaked out a something that resembled a laugh. It sounded forced, unenjoyable, unnerving._

_Yes unnerving, everything about it was unnerving._

_"I only need the children." He assured in something like a taunt. Grinning brightly as his tone fell to aggressive. " Everyone loves those little twerps."_

I gasped for breath holding on o anything I could reach, held it tightly as the light invaded my eyes. Someone was holding my shoulders, shaking me. I blinked hard, my vision coming in spurts. He was yelling but I couldn't hear him, Dick. He was yelling, everyone was yelling.

I clutched my wishing the ringing would stop. Wishing it would all just go away.

"..... _WHAT DID YOU SEE_......" I heard the words, his blue eyes blown wide and staring intently, shaking me.

My head flung around as screams erupted into my ears, scream that sounded like pain. I breathed once before my eyes reconnected once more with his, I saw fear. I was terrified, but I sad the words with perfect clarity.

"Run."


	20. Jokes On You Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I find that I should have not made this book in the first person.

_"I think he's still alive."_

_"He's not even breathing, Clarisse "_

_"How do you know. It could be shallow."_

My eyes felt heavy, impossibly so. They strained to open to even reveal a line of sight in the pitch black room. There was a pounding in my head that drowned out the sound in my ear like every word was shouted through water. It felt, felt. What did it even feel like?

Slow, it felt to slow. Distorted and drowsy. I heard voices, but my mind couldn't catch up enough to interpret them, understand what was said. I forced my eyes open, straining against the weight of my eyelids and stared unknowingly into the the pitch black. 

I should have been scared, inky blackness, voices and distorted reality. I should have been terrified, quivering in my skin, but sleep look so inviting. My eyes closed once more, I could sleep again, I was tired. Why was I so tired? 

My eyes fluttered open, the image of the dark room blurred. Tears? Am I crying? Why was I crying?

"Dead" I heard myself say, it felt strange, hoarse. Why was my throat so dry?

"Shit, I think Jacksons up." Someone said, the voice, it sounded familiar.

"What did he say?"

"The man, he's dead." I strained to pull my head up above my chest, probably glaring at the people across from me. God it had to be them.

The fucked up chances that I would be placed in the same room as the only ones in which want to rip my throat out. Clarisse and Polythemus were tied down thoroughly in the metal chairs across from him. Their arms pinned behind their back.

I jerked in my chair pulling my head up and tugged, and yes I too was bound. But come on, did the thugs even try? I could get out of these in less than a minute. My mind felt like pudding, sloshing painfully with each jerk of my head. Muscles only slightly atrophied but sore.

"Drugged." I coughed, I was defiantly drugged if the mouth akin to a dessert had anything to say.

They just stared at me, I couldn't understand the expression on the their faces. It seemed, scared for one. Depressed maybe? I couldn't place it

"How do you know." His voice was hoarse. "That he's dead."

My eyes opened wider at that. More closely examining the body than from the initial half witted and tired review. The body, looked familiar. It look to damn familiar-

"Oh god Tyson." I whimpered under my breath. Stopping from undoing the rope that bound my hands for a moment. Something inside me felt like it was twisting me from the inside out, digging through my skin.

"How do you know." Theo's voice was strained, his eyes pleading as I looked up from the cold, bloody body laying on the ground.

"The amount of blood. Even if you bleed out slowly, you can only take losing a third of the total volume before you die." My voice felt cold to myself, constrained.

"So, so he can't come back?" Clarisse spoke this time. To vulnerable to be experienced in any type of death related incident.

He shook his head.

"By the way his muscles have relaxed and expanded, rigor mortis has already set in. That meaning he has been dead for more than two hours." I I coughed again before letting my head hang, unwilling to meet her watering eyes.

God, I knew something bad was going to happen. How many people are dead? Is-is Dick still-

No he has to be, he's Robin, his future.

I sucked in a heavy breath, you can't think about the death toll while preventing it from becoming higher.

How long had we been down here? In this room?

Tyson wounds indicated that he was stabbed several times, but before that his skin was used as a slab of carving wood. How long till that happened to us?

I pulled my hands from behind my back and loosed the knots on my feet and legs to slip them put of the binding. Momentarily ignoring the tear running down my cheek. I then put my hands behind my back oncemore, letting all of the movements go unnoticed by the other two and hopefully any cameras.

"How long have you two been awake?" I asked, just to break the silence. Doing something to ingnore the body on the floor. Ignoring they _smell._

"Only a few minuets before you woke." A tear ran down her cheek as she answered. Theo looked unaturally gaunt. Pale and a withered away expression of remorse was plastered on his features.

They both seemed shellshocked, damn near unresponsive. Tyson...and Tyson was pretty much the only thing keeping Theo steady. _He was the only one to really give a shit about me..._ Why does everyone keep freaking dieing?

Am I freaking cursed? Everyone I have really cared about give two people who just happen to be superheroes have fucking bit a bullet. Why does everyone keep fucking dieing?

My bottom lip quivered and my eyes squeezed shut at the feeling of pressure behind my eyes. _Trust myself to freaking cry when things start getting hard. Get over yourself Jackson._ I took a shaky breath, feeling the cold air past down my dry throat.

I opened my eyes and stared at his dismembered body oncemore. I couldn't fucking take staring at him for any longer or else I would go insane. I slowly put pressure on my legs before quietly standing up, fading back into the shadowy corner of the room. The other two didn't even notice me get up. I couldn't exactly blame them, they were to preoccupied with their thoughts of their dead brother and friend to care much about anything at the moment. I laid my head against the cold stone wall behind me and took a moment to remember how to breathe, to think about something other than the body on the floor.

_I need to escape this hellhole._

I took in a deep breath, feeling the freezing, stale air fill my lungs. I held it there, for too long to count till my body convulsed with sobs that had nothing to do with the burning in my chest from holding in the air. I needed to get out.

_And what leave the rest subjected to the jokers torment?_

No, no I had to save everyone. I don't care how selfish I want to be, people will die here, have died here, if I don't get them out of here. Wherever here should be. I took once glance at the two teenagers who had tormented me for months. The ones who slammed me against lockers and made my existence something that shouldn't have been worth existing, well not alone, that was a heavy topic. They were the ones who didn't see me as a person, but as a piece of meat ready to be carved into. I took one look at the heart broken kids with their eyes shut tight and decided.

I grabbed the back the back of Clarisse's hands and started to untie the rope with renewed haste. She   
jerked violently and let a noise of panic escape her lips.

"What the hell?" She yelled and jerked back and forth in the chair till I grabbed the sides.

"Stop it." I commanded without tone and her movements stopped.

"Jackson? How the hell did you-."

"Is that Jackson? How did he-"

"I said be quiet," I resumed my work, twisting her hands through the course rope. "The needless questions that you have aren't important at the moment."

They both quieted, Clarisse's brown hair falling back over the chair as she relaxed her head. The knot confining her hands wasn't basic, was the farthest thing from basic, but when you have nights full of being confined to your mind alone, somethings are easier to practice that others. Untying myself blindfolded and strapped to a chair with a series of complex knots just happened to be one was to [ass the time. Though time in dreams were fluid and I could wake up anytime that I wanted with only minutes passing, I had not yet mastered that skill.

I finished her hands and moved on to her lower abdomen and legs, those were less complex. Within under two minuets I had them both untied and leaning against the wall.

"You two are still being effected by the drug they gave us. I've taken a guess that they used gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid in our schools water system based on our symptoms but I could be wrong." I affirmed, watching their faces go panicked. That was not the intended effect might I add.

"An-and what might the symptoms of this hydro-something acid be?" Clarisse hissed under her breath.

"Loss of consciousness, hallucinations, sweating, amnesia, and in some cases of over   
use, coma. It also causes euphoria, increased sex drive, and tranquility, used by people of non innocent intentions." I swallowed thickly.

"And what the hell does that mean?" Theo spoke up, voice still hard but unusually quiet.

"Referred to as GHB, it is in most forms, a date rape drug used to spike drinks." Their faces paled at that, not having anything good to reply with.

I took that time to examine the room, looking for anything, doors, vents. I'd take a sewer. There was a main door behind where I was tied up but it was locked with a deadbolt and I couldn't get past that even with water powers. They only went so far against titanium. _There had to be ventilation somewhere._ The ceiling was to high anyway.

"Leo have you initiated protocol Heimdal?" I asked in desperation

"Unable to contract a signal sir, there is lead lining the walls for defense against radiation."

"Unable to receive location?"

"No sir." I pressed my hands into my forehead, trying to block out the pain.

The two teens were still leaning against the wall in a dazed, Clarisse slowly sinking to her knees with her eyes shut tight. Theo had his hands pressed against the wall seemingly trying to focus.

"Good news and bad news guys, good news is the drug we came in contact with is mostly out of your system within 12 hour after urination, meaning it has been less then 12 hours since we've been taken." Theo sighed and Clarisse poked one eye open.

"What's the bad news, you said there was bad news." Clarisse croaked.

"I was hoping you didn't ask that." I sighed again. "The room is lined with lead, meaning I can't send a distress for help. There are also no other visible openings."

"So were all dead? That's basically what your saying?" Theo breathed.

"Do want me to tell you no? Or do you want me to tell you the truth." I responded. Theo just put his hands over his face.

"The truth is that I will do everything in my power to allow you to live. I can't guarantee your survival, but I would _die_ before I see any more of you bleeding on the ground." Theo blinked.

"But your, like, 8" He groaned. I glared at him.

"I'll have you know I am 9 years, 3 months, 2 days...give or take a few hours old. Not _8._ You uncultured intergluteal cleft pimple." I snapped, he just stared at me with confusion.

I collapsed back into the chair, holding my head in my hands. There was no way I could keep that promise. There was a reason that the Joker was feared. His file on the bat computer had been one of my first to read, the one with so many deaths and so many mutilations. He was a parasite that Gotham couldn't escape, that latched on and multiplied till the entire body was infested. He was what people feared more than the man who made it his duty to strike fear into hearts of criminals. It wasn't the man himself that I feared, but the death that followed in his wake, the suffering brought by chaos.

He is chaos and I am a nine year old who has to many issues with being a nine year old. If age was just a number then why did it matter anyway? If I am nine then I'm nine, that's just the way it is. _It doesn't matter to me, but it matters to them._ It matters to those who don't believe a nine year old can take on chaos. To conquer fear and allow myself to not think about the fact I might die here. I am not immortal, not everlasting and if push comes to shove I might be the one that ends up bleeding out on the floor. I might be the one who ends up forgotten...

I don't wanna die. My knees curled into my chest. If I didn't die here then that's all well and fine we all know what will happen at the end of this. What will happen when the things in my dreams are no longer just dreams. I wasn't going to die here, I was going to get these people out and I was going to survive. Screw this, screw my dreams. I control my own future, I control what I do with it. I was not going to die here weak and on my knees, like a scared child in a dark cave afraid of the dark.

I wasn't going to let the future control me, the premonitions hanging over my head be damned. I'm not going to feed into the wrong future. I control my fate.

"Lead." I whispered.

"What?" Clarisse asked half awake. I bolted up from my chair.

"Lead." I repeated, eyes wide.

"Lead?" She sounded confused. I grabbed her shoulders and grinned.

"Lead." I ran to the opposite side of the room and ran my hand over the cold stone wall. My hand came back wet.

"There's water." I turned around, grinning. "WATER!"

"Ok there's water..." Clarisse trailed off confused.

"Think. The Joker had just escaped Arkham. He had no way to communicate with the rest of his following, meaning this place isn't specially built for us to be imprisoned here." I walked closer. "Now why would a last minuet hiding place have specially lead lined walls."

"They use lead to keep out radiation....Gotham's Doomsday bunkers?" She asked, now more awake then ever.

"Exactly. That's why it feels so cold down here. We are underground." I answered.

"How does that help us, and you said something about water. Why is there water?"

"As people took refuge in them, they discovered a design flaw. That's why they were abandoned. Each room had a bathroom which was directly connected to the sewer system. They removed them and plastered over it with concrete before we got here, but I'm willing to bet the area where the concrete is placed is still weak. The entire structure is weak and so much that water is leaking through the walls."

"So the sewers, yeah?" Theo asked breathily. "Awesome."

"Don't worry, there's more shit than rats down there." Clarisse nudged his side.

"Amazing." His voice was flat as he pressed his lips together in a grimace.

I practically ran to the corner of the room, kneeling to graze my fingers over the fresh concreate. It was ruff and done by an amateur, done by one of Jokers goons no doubt. I moved my fingers to the normal stone and banged my knuckles against it, making a brisk sound, normal. Then did the same with the freshly done stone. _Hollow._

"Theo." I commanded. "Get a chair."

He moved over and handed the chair over without any comment. It was heavy, iron heavy duty. I lifted it up and banded it against the stone. It only fell to the side. I stared at it, biting my lip.

"Theo," I turned to face him with the chair in hand. "Perhaps this is your strength."

He took a moment to stare at me woefully before gripping the chair in hand.

"You can be the brains, I'll just be here, hitting things with a chair." He swung the thing above his head, bringing it down with a grunt and a yell. The chair crashed straight through the ground, the rest of it falling apart and crumbling into a large circular hole. A deep hole.

"Leo, light." The ring lit up to reveal a very long drop, and a very disgusting stream of crap.

"Are you guys ready to contract some diseases?" I asked breathing through my mouth to block out the smell.

"I hate you."

You see, there is a reason people don't like fecal matter. In it is where bacteria can flourish and the different bacteria from different people poses a danger you health. Things like typhoid fever that comes from fecal matter contaminating a water supply. We are naturally programmed to stay away from thing that don't smell like they should, putrid thing such as the thing we are ankle deep in. It the bodies natural response against disease, against death. I think I should probably listen to the body next time around.

"Why is it always the sewers. In the movies, TV shows, books. They always male the sewers look so peaceful, so inviting. This is bullshit." I grumbled, trying not to gag.

"This was your idea." Clarisse raised her eyebrows.

"I never said my idea's we good. Just enough stupid to keep us alive." Each step made a sucking noise, taking effort to pull my foot out of the crap.

We continued till we saw another hole in the ceiling. I stopped, swallowing thickly.

"This is another room." I spoke softly, turning to them.

"So what." Theo asked.

"There's more people I," I looked to the ground and back up at him. "I cant leave them. I won't be able to live knowing I did nothing to stop the people in there from suffering the same fate as the rest of the people in my life."

He stared at me for a moment, jaw clenched. Clarisse answered that first.

"I'm down." She breathed.

"I-I can't ask you to do that. You need to take this to the surface." I pointed at my ring. "It will send an automatic distress signal alerting the police and others of my location. To get help."

"I'm not going to sit around and be a petty damsel." She growled. "Besides, I have a friend I would rather not see dead."

"I-I ok." I stuttered. I didn't know if I could protect her, but I sure as hell couldn't say no.

"I'm in." Theo spoke up. "Those sons a bitches took the only person I had away from me. I'm not gonna let them get of with that. Not now, not ever."

"But-" He cut me off.

"The thing is Jackson, your not going to stop me. Tyson deserved better than an end like that, or an end at all. You ain't gonna change the fact that I'm pissed and I really wanna kick a clowns ass." I had no reply as he passed me other than a slightly opened mouth.

"I control my own fate.." I whispered into the darkness.


	21. Jokes On You Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yada yada no one cares.

The worst thing about expecting something, is finding out just how wrong you really are.

I might not admit it to myself, or anyone else for that matter, but I can be wrong. Sometimes everything that comes out of my mouth is absolute bullshit. Me faking knowing everything to prove everyone else wrong. I do know things, facts that seem to stick into my head weather I like it or not. I know math and I can calculate the location of a falling object before it hits the ground. Cut through firewalls like butter. And all of those, the skills and facts, they come from countless timeless hours inside my own head. But sometimes it seems I never know enough.

The hardest is people, to understand them. I can grasp the facts of classical conditioning, of mental disorders and fleeting physiological trauma. Though, I never really seem to understand why something the way it is. It's like the forth dimension, Time-space. Some people can know it, know what in entails and what it is. But few people can really _understand_ it. Visualize it and connect to it like its your own hand.

I am wrong about things though. I can remember that mitochondria is the power house of the cell and that Thomas Jefferson was the first secretary of state, but those are things that you read in a book. Those are things you remember, when you are seldom wrong. Making decisions, that's which door to go down, one leading to what you want, the other to your death. That's the sort of thing I'm always messing up, and I had the feeling I would pay for it when the time came.

I don't know why, but I expected all of my problems to be solved as we broke through the thin layer of concrete. That Dick would be there, finding some means of communication with Bruce. Perfectly unharmed wearing his trademark grin. Of course, as we've covered, there must be gods in the sky messing up our lives.

Theo rammed his elbow into the concrete, positioned awkwardly at the top of the rusted latter. It was dark inside the cavern-like sewer, but I could still see Clarisse's pinched expression due to the mistake of breathing through her nose. Theo repeated this action till he hissed in pain on contact with the thin layer of stone.

"Concrete is still concrete, Theo." I yelled up at him. He hung his head and breathed heavily through his mouth in exertion.

Just this once, I really hoped I was wrong about what we would see in there. What we would see throughout the facility. Death. Bodies painting the floor red and writhing teenagers strapped to chairs, fighting off the grief of seeing their friends torn apart. And most of all, I really hope that Dick hadn't ended up as a centerpiece.

_No, he can't. He has a future, unlike me..._

I turned my head to the side where tubing ran along the wall. It was screwed in half assed at best and was sealed with duct tape. I trudged over to it back through the fecal matter and climbed onto the pipe. It fell away with one well placed stomp to the side. I grinned and carried it back over the mixture of piss and shit with a strange sense of glee. Don't really know how a managed a smile while standing in shit.

"Use this." I shouted, throwing up the pipe as he turned his head. It took only a couple of blows for the concrete to start crumbling, falling off in dust and chunk. The hole plastered area fell away. I gave him a thumbs up, still grinning. Clarisse just sighed and blew a stray stand of hair out of her face.

And then I was climbing, desperately hoping that all that I knew was wrong, was false, lies, speculation. I wasn't wrong. Something inside me twisted and my breath caught.

It was the same setup as our room had been our room had been, body in the middle, three others circled around them. The only difference was that the body looked like it was burned to a crisp. They weren't as clam as we had been, and we weren't calm at all. The room was engulfed in yelling, they hadn't been able to see their entrance in the darkness.

I turned to Theo and put a finger to my lips. They didn't need to know we were here yet.

"He's dead, isn't he?" Someone choked out, I could make out a head of blond hair.

"You're the doctor Will, you tell me." Another voice spoke, it was strained and breathy.

"He can't be dead, not now. Not after all we've been through." His voice, _Will,_ cracked.

"It's not your fault Will." The last person finally spoke. A girl.

"Yes it is Lou! I could've of saved him! You know I could've. If I had just been awake..." He trailed off.

"That's an if, the fault goes to the sadistic bastard who did this too him." The second guy spat. "I swear too you that if I ever get the chance, I'll blow his fucking head off."

I shook my head as I ducked behind the guy named Will's chair, silently examining the bounds wrapped around his hands. I sighed, giving myself away. I could see Will's back tense.

"The man who brought you here was and evil, fucked up clown. I, doubt you would be able to accomplish what many others have not." I spoke, suddenly self conscious of how high my voice sounded.

Will writhed.

"Who the hells there?" Lou demanded at the same time the other guy asked. "God, how old are you?"

I twisted the rope in my hands, pulling that strands through and untying it. Will arched his back and twisted.

"Calm down, would you." I shot out.

"What the hell are you doing?" He returned, still writhing in his bounds.

"Oh, just you know, Invading Checklasovokia. What do you think?" I snapped at him, untying the last knot.

"How the hell did you even get in here?" Lou shouted again, I deemed her the one who asks the important questions.

Will brought his wrists to his chest, messaging where the coarse rope had bit into his skin, leaving red indentations along his palm. He kicked his feet in an attempt to release the other bindings, making a frustrated growl.

"The sewer, if you must know." She looked at me like she was tired of my sarcasm already. "Wasn't pleasant."

It was Will that spoke up next, finally releasing his feet from the rope and was attempting to stand.

"What the hell is happening?" He sounded much calmer than before, but frustrated. I looked to the ground, lifting from the kneeling position I was sitting in and walking over to untie Lou.

"This is what happens when The Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum, bodies drop faster than you can think 'RUN' and the next thing you know your being fucked over, roofied and kidnapped by people who think that it's smart to work for a psychopathic killer, when really, it's a high possibility that no one will be leaving this place alive." I looked up then, seeing the weight of what I said slouch their shoulders and cloud their eyes. I pursed my lips.

"Fun." The other guy said, voice simply soaked in sarcasm.

"Shut the fuck up Cecil!" Lou yelled.

Will didn't even react, he just collapsed back in his chair, giving up on the prospect of standing, and dropped his head in his hands.

I finally looked back at the silent viewers and found a pissed off Clarisse along a Theo with his hands resting in shallow pockets, shaking his head. Clarisse seemed like she wanted to murder me in more than seven different ways, each one more painful and traumatic than the last. She stalked into view and put her hands on her hips in front of me.

"Are you stupid or just socially inept! I would rather go back into the shit than walk through your social skills Percy." I looked down and bit my lips, not exactly ashamed. It wasn't _my_ fault. She knelt down in front of Lou and made herself useful by undoing the rope around her feet. I'm pretty sure she muttered something akin to " _No more talking to people for you"_ Under her breath.

"Who the fuck is this?" Lou groaned, head falling back against the chair.

"I'm Clarisse," She smiled. " And over there is Theo" She jabbed her thumb to the side. Theo was gyrating on the balls of his feet, taking a hand out of his pocket to do a small wave.

"Hi"

"We escaped our hell hole of a room, Percy over here finding a route through a toilet. But instead of leaving immediately and finding help, this dumbass decided that he should try and rescue everyone by himself." _Not true, I sent a distress signal as soon as we were out of the room. "_ Us both being responsible adult like people, elected to follow and not have him kill himself."

I huffed indignantly.

"Wow, so your the 6 year old who goes to our school?" The other guy, _Cecil,_ laughed.

"I'm 9." I growled.

"Are you sure?

"Keep it in mind that, as a very young minor, I wouldn't be tried in adult courts for murder. If I was, the maximum sentence I am unlikely to receive is 32 years." And nope, looked like he lost interest in everything I was saying 5 seconds ago .

"Your going to kill me?"

"I'm considering my options."

"No ones killing anyone!" Lou shouted.

We needed to get out of here, quickly, we didn't have time for this. The arguments, people could be dying and we were standing her like high school sweethearts that have been married for 30 years and have cheated in each other at least 16 times.

"Lets go, I'd rather not spend anymore time in this shit hole than I need to." I stalked toward the caved in concrete and started climbing down, not waiting for the rest of them, and wading through the shit again.

I felt like I was going to implode. Ill admit that I'm not that efficient at interacting with other human life forms, but hey, I'm nine and in the line of work that I'm planning on, talking to people is not that necessary. It didn't matter if I didn't have anything to talk about other than the philosophy of life, chance and percentage and what happened last on supernatural, I don't need people the way other people need people. Being alone to my thoughts is when everything changes and the caged animal inside likes make me think. It never felt like being alone was wrong, alone was my friend.

Thoughts don't hurt people, people hurt people. It was easier if he was just a ploy on the battlefield of his mind than being the ally or enemy of someone else's.

I looked down to the next sewer connection, it wasn't that far away. They followed behind me, teetering down the latter. grimacing at the sludge I was waist deep in.

"On down back where we came from is a service entrance, keep going and you'll make it to the downtown area. Ask for directions, go straight to the police station and walk briskly past any dark alleyways. Keep going, don't wait or stop, just go-"

"What are you talking about Percy?" Clarisse asked.

"No one else needs to get hurt, town should only be three miles away-"

"I'm coming." Will cut in.

"What-"

"I said I'm going." He took a shaky breath. "Those assholes killed my brother and I would very much like to beat an evil clown to death with his own crowbar."

"That's beside the point, no one else needs to get hurt-"

"Including you Percy, your nine years old and standing in a sewer trying to rescue people you didn't have the care to know. Tell me what the fuck gives you the right to be a fucking hero when you have it all set out for you-"

"Will-"

"Who did you have die? Who the fuck are you trying to avenge? What gives you the fucking right to tell me I don't need to get hurt when this things already killed the only thing I've ever had!?"

I cast my eyes down, biting my lip so hard that I could taste the iron in my mouth. I wanted to say something, tell him all I had lost and all of the shit that was riding on me fighting to save these people. Wanted to tell him just what a freak I was and how I could kill him right then in there and everyone would think it was a bad dream. I wanted to show just what he was saying and all of it would come falling out if I didn't bite my tongue so hard.

But I didn't, I turned my back and walked towards the opening in the ceiling.

"Don't ask what you don't want to know."

Then, silence.

"Are you coming or not?" I didn't wait for them to make up their minds.

_

The next room wasn't any better than the last.

In fact, worse.

Much worse.

I was silent through the process of breaking through the thin concrete layer, refusing myself the satisfaction of relishing my anger. Instead I stared at the shadowed brick wall on the other side on the sewer, hoping that whoever was in that room didn't have a slaughtered boy wonder sprawled across the floor. I couldn't get the image out of my brain, glassy eyes and no expression. cold hands, skin without color. I knew that it wouldn't happen, couldn't happen. That the future couldn't change, wouldn't change, hadn't changed from the way I saw it. Unless it could. Unless it did and Dick was on the aged stone floor with glassy eyes and cold pale skin. Dead.

No, he had a future. He had, he had life and he just couldn't be dead. _Please don't be dead._

I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall, exhaling the built up tension in my shoulders. Lou and Cecil had gladly ditched the joint like smart people who live in horror movies, but Will, the ever deepening thorn in my side had taken up the roll of standing on the other side of the latter, glaring at the ground like it was the one to kill his brother.

At least he was taking his anger out on inanimate objects and not me.

In less than a minuet, Theo had broke through the surface and pulled himself through the surface. I started climbing the latter with Clarisse following me, a lump in my throat. I pulled myself through the surface with the little upper body strength I had and rolled onto the ground not wanting to look at the scene. Until I did.

I breathed and closed my eyes. It's wasn't him, it was some poor girl that looked like she had half of her faced burned off by acid. _Not dead._ repeated in my head as the sweetest phrase that I had ever heard.

And then Clarisse screamed. My eyes shot open. Clarisse _screamed,_ she hadn't even so much as shed a tear at the fact that she was drugged and placed into a room where a body lay in the center. Now she had screamed. It sounded so heartbroken, like a woman had been taken from her child.

She was running, chasing the last edges of rationality towards the girl in the center. She whimpered and fell to her knees, throwing herself over the stiff body. I heard her crying, sobbing. Breathing shakily and struggling not to let out any noises.

" _Selina."_ It was chocked out with futile premises, as if the name would bring forth some kind of response.

Selina was dead, cold hard dead. Half of her face was burned by acid, reveling the inner lining her mouth, teeth and all. The side of the eye rotting inside her skull and half a head of her hair decayed and burned. Like the recreation of Two-Face on an innocent high school girl. Suddenly, I didn't want to look at them anymore. I didn't know her, didn't know most of everyone, but the expression of pure suffering was too much to take.

The rest of the people already looked dead on the inside. I didn't ask for their names as I told them travel down the sewer. I didn't care and neither did they. There were no objections and no sudden growing of consciousness. Will, Theo and I all watched in silence as Clarisse struggled not to feel what was impossible not to feel.

Then she wasn't, she stood up on shaky legs, back straightening and fists clenching. When she turned around, it wasn't misery on her face, not suffering, just pure unadulterated rage. She stalked past us, footfalls like thunder in her heavy combat boots.

"Let's go." She growled. and dropped back into the sewer.

We all deal with grief in different ways. Most try to suck it up and act like nothing was ever bothering them. Society, I find, would like us to be strong and get over it and continue on with our lives. Whether it be your pet goldfish or your mother. They expect death to be a short coming, a quick and go. That's not how it works, death is process, a feeling. It's drawn out by the people who never imagined how to live without you near them. Some deal with tears, a numbness in which you can't even think any more, and sometimes, it ends in anger.

-

We didn't get lucky another time. As lucky as you can get with a room full of people staring at a corpse in the middle of the floor. As soon as we entered the surface, there was a man with a gun pointed at me and Theo. I held up my hands and tried on my best scared little boy face. I was silently hoping that the others wouldn't follow as we stepped out and backed against the wall.

The gunman looked like your typical henchman. Dark brown hair lining a face with to stubby features, long thick nose and thin crusty lips. And it was Theo staring down the barrel of the pistol. I had created contingencies for these types of situations, maneuvers that could be executed as, none 100% effective, but then again nothing was.

"Look man," I began looking up at him with innocent eyes. "I just wanted to know where the bathroom is."

He hesitated for a moment.

"What?"

"Ok so I may have snuck away from my group, but hey! This tour blows and I had to go pee!"

"What?" He sounded even more confused.

"Really man hurry! I'm about to pee my pants!" I did a show of squeezing my legs together.

"What?" He said louder, closing his eyes with the force and shaking his head. In that moment, he was on the ground with his gun kicked away and a broken trachea.

I grinned and picked up the gun, testing it's weight in my hand. Theo just stared at me, a bit miffed.

"I cannot believe that worked."

"Neither can I, I should have gone with number 12SBAlpha, or as I call it, 'Are You My Mummy?'" I shoved the gun into the side of my pants and grinned wider.

"You guys can come out now, it's safe, but be quiet."

"You are so fucking weird." He huffed.

"I'll take that as a complement."

He shook his head and continued to etch down the hall. Depending on what sector we were in, the hallway might lead us to the commons area, something that may wanted to be avoided at all costs. These passageways, unlike the room, were lined with _very_ non-ominous lights if you sense my sarcasm. But, better than no light at all.

Being here was counterproductive to any cause, but call me curious, or stupid, either one. We needed to rescue the people out of the rooms and wait for Batman to come and save the day, not gallivanting about and risking our lives for exploring. Diverging off the set plan only works in love stories and adventure genres, not the horror film we were taking part in. No scratch, the characters are too developed to be a horror movie, more like shitty reality TV, same thing.

The lights flickered, and a gunshot sounded around the corner in a thunderous warning. Clarisse jumped next to me and panic flared in her irises. If the person who fired that shot were to round the corner, we would be dead within seconds, no doubt. Unless....

Another shot rang out and laughter sounded. Laughter like he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

We had to get into a room, I could get away if it was just me, but that wasn't the case. and unless these people had experience in intense parkour, it wouldn't work out for any of us. No we had to get to a room, not if who I thought was laughing was laughing.

The nearest room was to the left of us, bolt locking from the outside. One of the more useful modifications that actually worked in my favor this time. The bolt was a huge slab of metal that was unable to be moved from the outside, one of the reasons that the rooms were so hard to escape, but they were meant to be locked from the outside. I rushed to it, pulling the lock as hard and carefully as I could. We had to get out of here. I opened the door as fast as I could with what felt like an 100lbs, but successfully ushered them inside. Will pulled me inside forcefully and shut the door behind him.

Staying out in the open was one of the worst ideas ever, not when the entire place was crawling with henchmen. It was a good way to get us all killed is what it really was.

"Jackson, any more good ideas?" Clarisse hissed with venom, but it was more pained that anything angry.

"Yeah, live." I responded quietly.

"Percy?" I knew that voice, know that voice. It couldn't have been.

I spun around, already running. I ran into his chest his arms wrapping around me.

"Dick" I chocked out in something near a sob.

"Leave it to you to save my ass. I feel sorta embarrassed, I should be the one to save yours." He grinned.

"You should feel embarrassed, I expected you to be across town by now." _Just don't be lying on the floor dead._

He laughed in response, it was the most freeing sound I had ever heard.

"We need to get these people out of here, I've already contacted B, he should be here to save all of our asses in no time." I buried my face into his chest, he smelled like sweat and grass, but I didn't care, I had just been running through a sewer.

"Not to be clueless, but where are we and how the hell did you escape?" He questioned bluntly .

"In Gotham's doomsday bunkers, and we escaped through the sewers like normal people." At that, he slapped himself in the face and drug it down his face, ashamed at himself because it should have been obvious.

"Not to be rude," Clarisse interrupted, ever the lovely person. "But who are you and what the hell are we going to do now?"

"Were going to leave this shithole." I growled the same time Boy Wonder introduced himself.

"I'm Dick."

"Wow." Theo coughed.

"What?" Dick's face scrunched up.

"Nothing, just, you would like to be called that?" He looked like he was on the verge of laughter.

"If you have a joke, just say it, I've heard them all." I cackled at the fact that his face was beginning to flame red.

We would have kept uselessly conversing, but more rounds of gunfire sounded fro what seemed right outside the room. All that protected them was an unlatched door and two fighters not old enough to drink.

"We need to get out of here." I whispered backing away from the door.

"You know," Will began. "You keep saying that but what are we doing to actively escape."

"I'm doing things." Will raised his eyebrows.

"Things."

"Yes things." I whisper yelled.

That is when I scanned the room, stopping dead at two other silent people held captive with Dick. One with long, blond hair.

Artemis Crock was staring at me, looking like she was deciphering whether or not I was an atomic bomb or a firecracker. She could wait, I had to get these people to safety, not play 'I Spy' with someone that already knows all of the answers.

"Percy." Dick said, I pulled my head away, realizing I was staring.

"Oh yeah, escaping. Were gonna have to go through the door, whatever is on the other side would hear us breaking through the concrete. We have to do this quietly." Dick nodded but looked unsure.

"That's suicide." Will hissed.

"I'm glad you feel that way, but so is every other option."

"I think," said a voice from behind me, _Artemis. "_ That waiting for rescue is the best option."

"It would be, If who we are dealing with wasn't a psychotic clown." I sighed and rubbed my temples.

"The Joker, in his first rampage erupted the entire city into chaos. Blew up hospitals and boats to prove that no one is really good or evil when it comes down to their life. Now, it seems he is solely fixated on destroying his bane in the most slow an painful way possible. By destroying his person. The one thing that Batman wants to have is to save the lives he hadn't been able to save. So what if you couldn't stop the chaos from raining and all the people from dying, when your the only one who can stop it. It's an endless cycle of responsibility and fighting. The way to kill your sole purpose in life is to not kill him but to make him rot from the inside."

"So your saying that were all going to die regardless?" Theo asked.

"No, I said that he wants us to die." I looked at him with pursed lips. "This buildings old, structurally flawed. A couple of charges will bring it down."

"He's going to blow the place." Dick added helpfully.

"And since Batman is on his way, that time is going to be soon, we need to escape." I finished. Will drew in a breath and turned away.

"Awesome," Clarisse blew a hair out of her face. "We should probably leave now."

-

There a lot of things that define bravery. It's not always a hero picking up a sword and fighting, nor a man heading off to war. Sometimes bravery was standing tall when no one else wanted you to, for something you believed in. Sometimes bravery was chasing after dreams, and sometimes they where putting your dreams away for the greater good. All of us are a little brave, no matter what we do or where we come from.

The best option, sometimes doesn't always work out. Life doesn't follow some plan that the only thing left to do will work, because sometimes it will be that last thing you'll ever do.

I heard the shot before I felt it, but I didn't feel it, which was weird. I was pretty sure a crazy clown was pointing a gun at me, my head working through all possible contingencies. Then the gun fired, but I felt no pain, no fair of red in my chest nor sudden urge to fall like they did in the movies.

And then, Will was falling in front of me. Eyes fluttering. Red blooming through his white school dress shirt.

Will, dying.

Will, saving my life.

Laughter, The Joker, he was laughing. Still pointing the gun at me. The greasy green hair falling into his face as he clutched his stomach. Like Will dying was the funniest thing in the world.

I took the gun out of my waistband and shot him in the leg.

He stopped laughing and fell to the ground. Dick went to action, taking his gun and knocking him out.

It dropped out my shaking hands and I fell to my knees, next to Will. My hand coving up the blooming hole I his chest. He looked at me, shocked eyes. He was afraid.

"Y-your going to be ok. Well get you to a hospital, your going to live. Please Will, don't-." My voice hitched.

"We both know I won't be. Too close a hit to the aortic valve, I'll bleed out in minuets. I want to be a med student, believe me I know." He coughed, blood came out of his mouth.

"Don't, please don't. Too many people have died. You have to live." I pleaded.

"One more isn't going..to make a difference." His speech was slurred. His heart rate was slowing.

"It will to me, don't die please."

"I'll try..." His eyes closed.

"Will don't you dare close your eyes." He didn't respond. The beats got slower. "Will" I croaked.

"Percy." A hand rested on my back. "He's dead."

"No his hearts still beating. Even after clinical death he still has 3 minuets till the start of irreversible brain damage and brain death. We can-"

"Percy." Dick spoke softly, taking my hands coated in his blood away from his chest. "He's gone."

"No he's, we can. I can. I can-can-can. I-" His arms wrapped around me.

"It's over, their gone." And I was crying, sobbing into his chest.

"He's gone." I repeated.

"He's gone."

_And soon, so will I. But you weren't laying on that floor with cold, glassy eyes._

The worst thing about expecting something, is finding out just how wrong you really are.

I might not admit it to myself, or anyone else for that matter, but I can be wrong. Sometimes everything that comes out of my mouth is absolute bullshit. Me faking knowing everything to prove everyone else wrong. I do know things, facts that seem to stick into my head weather I like it or not. I know math and I can calculate the location of a falling object before it hits the ground. Cut through firewalls like butter. And all of those, the skills and facts, they come from countless timeless hours inside my own head. But sometimes it seems I never know enough.

The hardest is people, to understand them. I can grasp the facts of classical conditioning, of mental disorders and fleeting physiological trauma. Though, I never really seem to understand why something the way it is. It's like the forth dimension, Time-space. Some people can know it, know what in entails and what it is. But few people can really _understand_ it. Visualize it and connect to it like its your own hand.

I am wrong about things though. I can remember that mitochondria is the power house of the cell and that Thomas Jefferson was the first secretary of state, but those are things that you read in a book. Those are things you remember, when you are seldom wrong. Making decisions, that's which door to go down, one leading to what you want, the other to your death. That's the sort of thing I'm always messing up, and I had the feeling I would pay for it when the time came.

I don't know why, but I expected all of my problems to be solved as we broke through the thin layer of concrete. That Dick would be there, finding some means of communication with Bruce. Perfectly unharmed wearing his trademark grin. Of course, as we've covered, there must be gods in the sky messing up our lives.

Theo rammed his elbow into the concrete, positioned awkwardly at the top of the rusted latter. It was dark inside the cavern-like sewer, but I could still see Clarisse's pinched expression due to the mistake of breathing through her nose. Theo repeated this action till he hissed in pain on contact with the thin layer of stone.

"Concrete is still concrete, Theo." I yelled up at him. He hung his head and breathed heavily through his mouth in exertion.

Just this once, I really hoped I was wrong about what we would see in there. What we would see throughout the facility. Death. Bodies painting the floor red and writhing teenagers strapped to chairs, fighting off the grief of seeing their friends torn apart. And most of all, I really hope that Dick hadn't ended up as a centerpiece.

_No, he can't. He has a future, unlike me..._

I turned my head to the side where tubing ran along the wall. It was screwed in half assed at best and was sealed with duct tape. I trudged over to it back through the fecal matter and climbed onto the pipe. It fell away with one well placed stomp to the side. I grinned and carried it back over the mixture of piss and shit with a strange sense of glee. Don't really know how a managed a smile while standing in shit.

"Use this." I shouted, throwing up the pipe as he turned his head. It took only a couple of blows for the concrete to start crumbling, falling off in dust and chunk. The hole plastered area fell away. I gave him a thumbs up, still grinning. Clarisse just sighed and blew a stray stand of hair out of her face.

And then I was climbing, desperately hoping that all that I knew was wrong, was false, lies, speculation. I wasn't wrong. Something inside me twisted and my breath caught.

It was the same setup as our room had been our room had been, body in the middle, three others circled around them. The only difference was that the body looked like it was burned to a crisp. They weren't as clam as we had been, and we weren't calm at all. The room was engulfed in yelling, they hadn't been able to see their entrance in the darkness.

I turned to Theo and put a finger to my lips. They didn't need to know we were here yet.

"He's dead, isn't he?" Someone choked out, I could make out a head of blond hair.

"You're the doctor Will, you tell me." Another voice spoke, it was strained and breathy.

"He can't be dead, not now. Not after all we've been through." His voice, _Will,_ cracked.

"It's not your fault Will." The last person finally spoke. A girl.

"Yes it is Lou! I could've of saved him! You know I could've. If I had just been awake..." He trailed off.

"That's an if, the fault goes to the sadistic bastard who did this too him." The second guy spat. "I swear too you that if I ever get the chance, I'll blow his fucking head off."

I shook my head as I ducked behind the guy named Will's chair, silently examining the bounds wrapped around his hands. I sighed, giving myself away. I could see Will's back tense.

"The man who brought you here was and evil, fucked up clown. I, doubt you would be able to accomplish what many others have not." I spoke, suddenly self conscious of how high my voice sounded.

Will writhed.

"Who the hells there?" Lou demanded at the same time the other guy asked. "God, how old are you?"

I twisted the rope in my hands, pulling that strands through and untying it. Will arched his back and twisted.

"Calm down, would you." I shot out.

"What the hell are you doing?" He returned, still writhing in his bounds.

"Oh, just you know, Invading Checklasovokia. What do you think?" I snapped at him, untying the last knot.

"How the hell did you even get in here?" Lou shouted again, I deemed her the one who asks the important questions.

Will brought his wrists to his chest, messaging where the coarse rope had bit into his skin, leaving red indentations along his palm. He kicked his feet in an attempt to release the other bindings, making a frustrated growl.

"The sewer, if you must know." She looked at me like she was tired of my sarcasm already. "Wasn't pleasant."

It was Will that spoke up next, finally releasing his feet from the rope and was attempting to stand.

"What the hell is happening?" He sounded much calmer than before, but frustrated. I looked to the ground, lifting from the kneeling position I was sitting in and walking over to untie Lou.

"This is what happens when The Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum, bodies drop faster than you can think 'RUN' and the next thing you know your being fucked over, roofied and kidnapped by people who think that it's smart to work for a psychopathic killer, when really, it's a high possibility that no one will be leaving this place alive." I looked up then, seeing the weight of what I said slouch their shoulders and cloud their eyes. I pursed my lips.

"Fun." The other guy said, voice simply soaked in sarcasm.

"Shut the fuck up Cecil!" Lou yelled.

Will didn't even react, he just collapsed back in his chair, giving up on the prospect of standing, and dropped his head in his hands.

I finally looked back at the silent viewers and found a pissed off Clarisse along a Theo with his hands resting in shallow pockets, shaking his head. Clarisse seemed like she wanted to murder me in more than seven different ways, each one more painful and traumatic than the last. She stalked into view and put her hands on her hips in front of me.

"Are you stupid or just socially inept! I would rather go back into the shit than walk through your social skills Percy." I looked down and bit my lips, not exactly ashamed. It wasn't _my_ fault. She knelt down in front of Lou and made herself useful by undoing the rope around her feet. I'm pretty sure she muttered something akin to " _No more talking to people for you"_ Under her breath.

"Who the fuck is this?" Lou groaned, head falling back against the chair.

"I'm Clarisse," She smiled. " And over there is Theo" She jabbed her thumb to the side. Theo was gyrating on the balls of his feet, taking a hand out of his pocket to do a small wave.

"Hi"

"We escaped our hell hole of a room, Percy over here finding a route through a toilet. But instead of leaving immediately and finding help, this dumbass decided that he should try and rescue everyone by himself." _Not true, I sent a distress signal as soon as we were out of the room. "_ Us both being responsible adult like people, elected to follow and not have him kill himself."

I huffed indignantly.

"Wow, so your the 6 year old who goes to our school?" The other guy, _Cecil,_ laughed.

"I'm 9." I growled.

"Are you sure?

"Keep it in mind that, as a very young minor, I wouldn't be tried in adult courts for murder. If I was, the maximum sentence I am unlikely to receive is 32 years." And nope, looked like he lost interest in everything I was saying 5 seconds ago .

"Your going to kill me?"

"I'm considering my options."

"No ones killing anyone!" Lou shouted.

We needed to get out of here, quickly, we didn't have time for this. The arguments, people could be dying and we were standing her like high school sweethearts that have been married for 30 years and have cheated in each other at least 16 times.

"Lets go, I'd rather not spend anymore time in this shit hole than I need to." I stalked toward the caved in concrete and started climbing down, not waiting for the rest of them, and wading through the shit again.

I felt like I was going to implode. Ill admit that I'm not that efficient at interacting with other human life forms, but hey, I'm nine and in the line of work that I'm planning on, talking to people is not that necessary. It didn't matter if I didn't have anything to talk about other than the philosophy of life, chance and percentage and what happened last on supernatural, I don't need people the way other people need people. Being alone to my thoughts is when everything changes and the caged animal inside likes make me think. It never felt like being alone was wrong, alone was my friend.

Thoughts don't hurt people, people hurt people. It was easier if he was just a ploy on the battlefield of his mind than being the ally or enemy of someone else's.

I looked down to the next sewer connection, it wasn't that far away. They followed behind me, teetering down the latter. grimacing at the sludge I was waist deep in.

"On down back where we came from is a service entrance, keep going and you'll make it to the downtown area. Ask for directions, go straight to the police station and walk briskly past any dark alleyways. Keep going, don't wait or stop, just go-"

"What are you talking about Percy?" Clarisse asked.

"No one else needs to get hurt, town should only be three miles away-"

"I'm coming." Will cut in.

"What-"

"I said I'm going." He took a shaky breath. "Those assholes killed my brother and I would very much like to beat an evil clown to death with his own crowbar."

"That's beside the point, no one else needs to get hurt-"

"Including you Percy, your nine years old and standing in a sewer trying to rescue people you didn't have the care to know. Tell me what the fuck gives you the right to be a fucking hero when you have it all set out for you-"

"Will-"

"Who did you have die? Who the fuck are you trying to avenge? What gives you the fucking right to tell me I don't need to get hurt when this things already killed the only thing I've ever had!?"

I cast my eyes down, biting my lip so hard that I could taste the iron in my mouth. I wanted to say something, tell him all I had lost and all of the shit that was riding on me fighting to save these people. Wanted to tell him just what a freak I was and how I could kill him right then in there and everyone would think it was a bad dream. I wanted to show just what he was saying and all of it would come falling out if I didn't bite my tongue so hard.

But I didn't, I turned my back and walked towards the opening in the ceiling.

"Don't ask what you don't want to know."

Then, silence.

"Are you coming or not?" I didn't wait for them to make up their minds.

_

The next room wasn't any better than the last.

In fact, worse.

Much worse.

I was silent through the process of breaking through the thin concrete layer, refusing myself the satisfaction of relishing my anger. Instead I stared at the shadowed brick wall on the other side on the sewer, hoping that whoever was in that room didn't have a slaughtered boy wonder sprawled across the floor. I couldn't get the image out of my brain, glassy eyes and no expression. cold hands, skin without color. I knew that it wouldn't happen, couldn't happen. That the future couldn't change, wouldn't change, hadn't changed from the way I saw it. Unless it could. Unless it did and Dick was on the aged stone floor with glassy eyes and cold pale skin. Dead.

No, he had a future. He had, he had life and he just couldn't be dead. _Please don't be dead._

I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall, exhaling the built up tension in my shoulders. Lou and Cecil had gladly ditched the joint like smart people who live in horror movies, but Will, the ever deepening thorn in my side had taken up the roll of standing on the other side of the latter, glaring at the ground like it was the one to kill his brother.

At least he was taking his anger out on inanimate objects and not me.

In less than a minuet, Theo had broke through the surface and pulled himself through the surface. I started climbing the latter with Clarisse following me, a lump in my throat. I pulled myself through the surface with the little upper body strength I had and rolled onto the ground not wanting to look at the scene. Until I did.

I breathed and closed my eyes. It's wasn't him, it was some poor girl that looked like she had half of her faced burned off by acid. _Not dead._ repeated in my head as the sweetest phrase that I had ever heard.

And then Clarisse screamed. My eyes shot open. Clarisse _screamed,_ she hadn't even so much as shed a tear at the fact that she was drugged and placed into a room where a body lay in the center. Now she had screamed. It sounded so heartbroken, like a woman had been taken from her child.

She was running, chasing the last edges of rationality towards the girl in the center. She whimpered and fell to her knees, throwing herself over the stiff body. I heard her crying, sobbing. Breathing shakily and struggling not to let out any noises.

" _Selina."_ It was chocked out with futile premises, as if the name would bring forth some kind of response.

Selina was dead, cold hard dead. Half of her face was burned by acid, reveling the inner lining her mouth, teeth and all. The side of the eye rotting inside her skull and half a head of her hair decayed and burned. Like the recreation of Two-Face on an innocent high school girl. Suddenly, I didn't want to look at them anymore. I didn't know her, didn't know most of everyone, but the expression of pure suffering was too much to take.

The rest of the people already looked dead on the inside. I didn't ask for their names as I told them travel down the sewer. I didn't care and neither did they. There were no objections and no sudden growing of consciousness. Will, Theo and I all watched in silence as Clarisse struggled not to feel what was impossible not to feel.

Then she wasn't, she stood up on shaky legs, back straightening and fists clenching. When she turned around, it wasn't misery on her face, not suffering, just pure unadulterated rage. She stalked past us, footfalls like thunder in her heavy combat boots.

"Let's go." She growled. and dropped back into the sewer.

We all deal with grief in different ways. Most try to suck it up and act like nothing was ever bothering them. Society, I find, would like us to be strong and get over it and continue on with our lives. Whether it be your pet goldfish or your mother. They expect death to be a short coming, a quick and go. That's not how it works, death is process, a feeling. It's drawn out by the people who never imagined how to live without you near them. Some deal with tears, a numbness in which you can't even think any more, and sometimes, it ends in anger.

-

We didn't get lucky another time. As lucky as you can get with a room full of people staring at a corpse in the middle of the floor. As soon as we entered the surface, there was a man with a gun pointed at me and Theo. I held up my hands and tried on my best scared little boy face. I was silently hoping that the others wouldn't follow as we stepped out and backed against the wall.

The gunman looked like your typical henchman. Dark brown hair lining a face with to stubby features, long thick nose and thin crusty lips. And it was Theo staring down the barrel of the pistol. I had created contingencies for these types of situations, maneuvers that could be executed as, none 100% effective, but then again nothing was.

"Look man," I began looking up at him with innocent eyes. "I just wanted to know where the bathroom is."

He hesitated for a moment.

"What?"

"Ok so I may have snuck away from my group, but hey! This tour blows and I had to go pee!"

"What?" He sounded even more confused.

"Really man hurry! I'm about to pee my pants!" I did a show of squeezing my legs together.

"What?" He said louder, closing his eyes with the force and shaking his head. In that moment, he was on the ground with his gun kicked away and a broken trachea.

I grinned and picked up the gun, testing it's weight in my hand. Theo just stared at me, a bit miffed.

"I cannot believe that worked."

"Neither can I, I should have gone with number 12SBAlpha, or as I call it, 'Are You My Mummy?'" I shoved the gun into the side of my pants and grinned wider.

"You guys can come out now, it's safe, but be quiet."

"You are so fucking weird." He huffed.

"I'll take that as a complement."

He shook his head and continued to etch down the hall. Depending on what sector we were in, the hallway might lead us to the commons area, something that may wanted to be avoided at all costs. These passageways, unlike the room, were lined with _very_ non-ominous lights if you sense my sarcasm. But, better than no light at all.

Being here was counterproductive to any cause, but call me curious, or stupid, either one. We needed to rescue the people out of the rooms and wait for Batman to come and save the day, not gallivanting about and risking our lives for exploring. Diverging off the set plan only works in love stories and adventure genres, not the horror film we were taking part in. No scratch, the characters are too developed to be a horror movie, more like shitty reality TV, same thing.

The lights flickered, and a gunshot sounded around the corner in a thunderous warning. Clarisse jumped next to me and panic flared in her irises. If the person who fired that shot were to round the corner, we would be dead within seconds, no doubt. Unless....

Another shot rang out and laughter sounded. Laughter like he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

We had to get into a room, I could get away if it was just me, but that wasn't the case. and unless these people had experience in intense parkour, it wouldn't work out for any of us. No we had to get to a room, not if who I thought was laughing was laughing.

The nearest room was to the left of us, bolt locking from the outside. One of the more useful modifications that actually worked in my favor this time. The bolt was a huge slab of metal that was unable to be moved from the outside, one of the reasons that the rooms were so hard to escape, but they were meant to be locked from the outside. I rushed to it, pulling the lock as hard and carefully as I could. We had to get out of here. I opened the door as fast as I could with what felt like an 100lbs, but successfully ushered them inside. Will pulled me inside forcefully and shut the door behind him.

Staying out in the open was one of the worst ideas ever, not when the entire place was crawling with henchmen. It was a good way to get us all killed is what it really was.

"Jackson, any more good ideas?" Clarisse hissed with venom, but it was more pained that anything angry.

"Yeah, live." I responded quietly.

"Percy?" I knew that voice, know that voice. It couldn't have been.

I spun around, already running. I ran into his chest his arms wrapping around me.

"Dick" I chocked out in something near a sob.

"Leave it to you to save my ass. I feel sorta embarrassed, I should be the one to save yours." He grinned.

"You should feel embarrassed, I expected you to be across town by now." _Just don't be lying on the floor dead._

He laughed in response, it was the most freeing sound I had ever heard.

"We need to get these people out of here, I've already contacted B, he should be here to save all of our asses in no time." I buried my face into his chest, he smelled like sweat and grass, but I didn't care, I had just been running through a sewer.

"Not to be clueless, but where are we and how the hell did you escape?" He questioned bluntly .

"In Gotham's doomsday bunkers, and we escaped through the sewers like normal people." At that, he slapped himself in the face and drug it down his face, ashamed at himself because it should have been obvious.

"Not to be rude," Clarisse interrupted, ever the lovely person. "But who are you and what the hell are we going to do now?"

"Were going to leave this shithole." I growled the same time Boy Wonder introduced himself.

"I'm Dick."

"Wow." Theo coughed.

"What?" Dick's face scrunched up.

"Nothing, just, you would like to be called that?" He looked like he was on the verge of laughter.

"If you have a joke, just say it, I've heard them all." I cackled at the fact that his face was beginning to flame red.

We would have kept uselessly conversing, but more rounds of gunfire sounded fro what seemed right outside the room. All that protected them was an unlatched door and two fighters not old enough to drink.

"We need to get out of here." I whispered backing away from the door.

"You know," Will began. "You keep saying that but what are we doing to actively escape."

"I'm doing things." Will raised his eyebrows.

"Things."

"Yes things." I whisper yelled.

That is when I scanned the room, stopping dead at two other silent people held captive with Dick. One with long, blond hair.

Artemis Crock was staring at me, looking like she was deciphering whether or not I was an atomic bomb or a firecracker. She could wait, I had to get these people to safety, not play 'I Spy' with someone that already knows all of the answers.

"Percy." Dick said, I pulled my head away, realizing I was staring.

"Oh yeah, escaping. Were gonna have to go through the door, whatever is on the other side would hear us breaking through the concrete. We have to do this quietly." Dick nodded but looked unsure.

"That's suicide." Will hissed.

"I'm glad you feel that way, but so is every other option."

"I think," said a voice from behind me, _Artemis. "_ That waiting for rescue is the best option."

"It would be, If who we are dealing with wasn't a psychotic clown." I sighed and rubbed my temples.

"The Joker, in his first rampage erupted the entire city into chaos. Blew up hospitals and boats to prove that no one is really good or evil when it comes down to their life. Now, it seems he is solely fixated on destroying his bane in the most slow an painful way possible. By destroying his person. The one thing that Batman wants to have is to save the lives he hadn't been able to save. So what if you couldn't stop the chaos from raining and all the people from dying, when your the only one who can stop it. It's an endless cycle of responsibility and fighting. The way to kill your sole purpose in life is to not kill him but to make him rot from the inside."

"So your saying that were all going to die regardless?" Theo asked.

"No, I said that he wants us to die." I looked at him with pursed lips. "This buildings old, structurally flawed. A couple of charges will bring it down."

"He's going to blow the place." Dick added helpfully.

"And since Batman is on his way, that time is going to be soon, we need to escape." I finished. Will drew in a breath and turned away.

"Awesome," Clarisse blew a hair out of her face. "We should probably leave now."

-

There a lot of things that define bravery. It's not always a hero picking up a sword and fighting, nor a man heading off to war. Sometimes bravery was standing tall when no one else wanted you to, for something you believed in. Sometimes bravery was chasing after dreams, and sometimes they where putting your dreams away for the greater good. All of us are a little brave, no matter what we do or where we come from.

The best option, sometimes doesn't always work out. Life doesn't follow some plan that the only thing left to do will work, because sometimes it will be that last thing you'll ever do.

I heard the shot before I felt it, but I didn't feel it, which was weird. I was pretty sure a crazy clown was pointing a gun at me, my head working through all possible contingencies. Then the gun fired, but I felt no pain, no fair of red in my chest nor sudden urge to fall like they did in the movies.

And then, Will was falling in front of me. Eyes fluttering. Red blooming through his white school dress shirt.

Will, dying.

Will, saving my life.

Laughter, The Joker, he was laughing. Still pointing the gun at me. The greasy green hair falling into his face as he clutched his stomach. Like Will dying was the funniest thing in the world.

I took the gun out of my waistband and shot him in the leg.

He stopped laughing and fell to the ground. Dick went to action, taking his gun and knocking him out.

It dropped out my shaking hands and I fell to my knees, next to Will. My hand coving up the blooming hole I his chest. He looked at me, shocked eyes. He was afraid.

"Y-your going to be ok. Well get you to a hospital, your going to live. Please Will, don't-." My voice hitched.

"We both know I won't be. Too close a hit to the aortic valve, I'll bleed out in minuets. I want to be a med student, believe me I know." He coughed, blood came out of his mouth.

"Don't, please don't. Too many people have died. You have to live." I pleaded.

"One more isn't going..to make a difference." His speech was slurred. His heart rate was slowing.

"It will to me, don't die please."

"I'll try..." His eyes closed.

"Will don't you dare close your eyes." He didn't respond. The beats got slower. "Will" I croaked.

"Percy." A hand rested on my back. "He's dead."

"No his hearts still beating. Even after clinical death he still has 3 minuets till the start of irreversible brain damage and brain death. We can-"

"Percy." Dick spoke softly, taking my hands coated in his blood away from his chest. "He's gone."

"No he's, we can. I can. I can-can-can. I-" His arms wrapped around me.

"It's over, their gone." And I was crying, sobbing into his chest.

"He's gone." I repeated.

"He's gone."

_And soon, so will I. But you weren't laying on that floor with cold, glassy eyes._

The worst thing about expecting something, is finding out just how wrong you really are.

I might not admit it to myself, or anyone else for that matter, but I can be wrong. Sometimes everything that comes out of my mouth is absolute bullshit. Me faking knowing everything to prove everyone else wrong. I do know things, facts that seem to stick into my head weather I like it or not. I know math and I can calculate the location of a falling object before it hits the ground. Cut through firewalls like butter. And all of those, the skills and facts, they come from countless timeless hours inside my own head. But sometimes it seems I never know enough.

The hardest is people, to understand them. I can grasp the facts of classical conditioning, of mental disorders and fleeting physiological trauma. Though, I never really seem to understand why something the way it is. It's like the forth dimension, Time-space. Some people can know it, know what in entails and what it is. But few people can really _understand_ it. Visualize it and connect to it like its your own hand.

I am wrong about things though. I can remember that mitochondria is the power house of the cell and that Thomas Jefferson was the first secretary of state, but those are things that you read in a book. Those are things you remember, when you are seldom wrong. Making decisions, that's which door to go down, one leading to what you want, the other to your death. That's the sort of thing I'm always messing up, and I had the feeling I would pay for it when the time came.

I don't know why, but I expected all of my problems to be solved as we broke through the thin layer of concrete. That Dick would be there, finding some means of communication with Bruce. Perfectly unharmed wearing his trademark grin. Of course, as we've covered, there must be gods in the sky messing up our lives.

Theo rammed his elbow into the concrete, positioned awkwardly at the top of the rusted latter. It was dark inside the cavern-like sewer, but I could still see Clarisse's pinched expression due to the mistake of breathing through her nose. Theo repeated this action till he hissed in pain on contact with the thin layer of stone.

"Concrete is still concrete, Theo." I yelled up at him. He hung his head and breathed heavily through his mouth in exertion.

Just this once, I really hoped I was wrong about what we would see in there. What we would see throughout the facility. Death. Bodies painting the floor red and writhing teenagers strapped to chairs, fighting off the grief of seeing their friends torn apart. And most of all, I really hope that Dick hadn't ended up as a centerpiece.

_No, he can't. He has a future, unlike me..._

I turned my head to the side where tubing ran along the wall. It was screwed in half assed at best and was sealed with duct tape. I trudged over to it back through the fecal matter and climbed onto the pipe. It fell away with one well placed stomp to the side. I grinned and carried it back over the mixture of piss and shit with a strange sense of glee. Don't really know how a managed a smile while standing in shit.

"Use this." I shouted, throwing up the pipe as he turned his head. It took only a couple of blows for the concrete to start crumbling, falling off in dust and chunk. The hole plastered area fell away. I gave him a thumbs up, still grinning. Clarisse just sighed and blew a stray stand of hair out of her face.

And then I was climbing, desperately hoping that all that I knew was wrong, was false, lies, speculation. I wasn't wrong. Something inside me twisted and my breath caught.

It was the same setup as our room had been our room had been, body in the middle, three others circled around them. The only difference was that the body looked like it was burned to a crisp. They weren't as clam as we had been, and we weren't calm at all. The room was engulfed in yelling, they hadn't been able to see their entrance in the darkness.

I turned to Theo and put a finger to my lips. They didn't need to know we were here yet.

"He's dead, isn't he?" Someone choked out, I could make out a head of blond hair.

"You're the doctor Will, you tell me." Another voice spoke, it was strained and breathy.

"He can't be dead, not now. Not after all we've been through." His voice, _Will,_ cracked.

"It's not your fault Will." The last person finally spoke. A girl.

"Yes it is Lou! I could've of saved him! You know I could've. If I had just been awake..." He trailed off.

"That's an if, the fault goes to the sadistic bastard who did this too him." The second guy spat. "I swear too you that if I ever get the chance, I'll blow his fucking head off."

I shook my head as I ducked behind the guy named Will's chair, silently examining the bounds wrapped around his hands. I sighed, giving myself away. I could see Will's back tense.

"The man who brought you here was and evil, fucked up clown. I, doubt you would be able to accomplish what many others have not." I spoke, suddenly self conscious of how high my voice sounded.

Will writhed.

"Who the hells there?" Lou demanded at the same time the other guy asked. "God, how old are you?"

I twisted the rope in my hands, pulling that strands through and untying it. Will arched his back and twisted.

"Calm down, would you." I shot out.

"What the hell are you doing?" He returned, still writhing in his bounds.

"Oh, just you know, Invading Checklasovokia. What do you think?" I snapped at him, untying the last knot.

"How the hell did you even get in here?" Lou shouted again, I deemed her the one who asks the important questions.

Will brought his wrists to his chest, messaging where the coarse rope had bit into his skin, leaving red indentations along his palm. He kicked his feet in an attempt to release the other bindings, making a frustrated growl.

"The sewer, if you must know." She looked at me like she was tired of my sarcasm already. "Wasn't pleasant."

It was Will that spoke up next, finally releasing his feet from the rope and was attempting to stand.

"What the hell is happening?" He sounded much calmer than before, but frustrated. I looked to the ground, lifting from the kneeling position I was sitting in and walking over to untie Lou.

"This is what happens when The Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum, bodies drop faster than you can think 'RUN' and the next thing you know your being fucked over, roofied and kidnapped by people who think that it's smart to work for a psychopathic killer, when really, it's a high possibility that no one will be leaving this place alive." I looked up then, seeing the weight of what I said slouch their shoulders and cloud their eyes. I pursed my lips.

"Fun." The other guy said, voice simply soaked in sarcasm.

"Shut the fuck up Cecil!" Lou yelled.

Will didn't even react, he just collapsed back in his chair, giving up on the prospect of standing, and dropped his head in his hands.

I finally looked back at the silent viewers and found a pissed off Clarisse along a Theo with his hands resting in shallow pockets, shaking his head. Clarisse seemed like she wanted to murder me in more than seven different ways, each one more painful and traumatic than the last. She stalked into view and put her hands on her hips in front of me.

"Are you stupid or just socially inept! I would rather go back into the shit than walk through your social skills Percy." I looked down and bit my lips, not exactly ashamed. It wasn't _my_ fault. She knelt down in front of Lou and made herself useful by undoing the rope around her feet. I'm pretty sure she muttered something akin to " _No more talking to people for you"_ Under her breath.

"Who the fuck is this?" Lou groaned, head falling back against the chair.

"I'm Clarisse," She smiled. " And over there is Theo" She jabbed her thumb to the side. Theo was gyrating on the balls of his feet, taking a hand out of his pocket to do a small wave.

"Hi"

"We escaped our hell hole of a room, Percy over here finding a route through a toilet. But instead of leaving immediately and finding help, this dumbass decided that he should try and rescue everyone by himself." _Not true, I sent a distress signal as soon as we were out of the room. "_ Us both being responsible adult like people, elected to follow and not have him kill himself."

I huffed indignantly.

"Wow, so your the 6 year old who goes to our school?" The other guy, _Cecil,_ laughed.

"I'm 9." I growled.

"Are you sure?

"Keep it in mind that, as a very young minor, I wouldn't be tried in adult courts for murder. If I was, the maximum sentence I am unlikely to receive is 32 years." And nope, looked like he lost interest in everything I was saying 5 seconds ago .

"Your going to kill me?"

"I'm considering my options."

"No ones killing anyone!" Lou shouted.

We needed to get out of here, quickly, we didn't have time for this. The arguments, people could be dying and we were standing her like high school sweethearts that have been married for 30 years and have cheated in each other at least 16 times.

"Lets go, I'd rather not spend anymore time in this shit hole than I need to." I stalked toward the caved in concrete and started climbing down, not waiting for the rest of them, and wading through the shit again.

I felt like I was going to implode. Ill admit that I'm not that efficient at interacting with other human life forms, but hey, I'm nine and in the line of work that I'm planning on, talking to people is not that necessary. It didn't matter if I didn't have anything to talk about other than the philosophy of life, chance and percentage and what happened last on supernatural, I don't need people the way other people need people. Being alone to my thoughts is when everything changes and the caged animal inside likes make me think. It never felt like being alone was wrong, alone was my friend.

Thoughts don't hurt people, people hurt people. It was easier if he was just a ploy on the battlefield of his mind than being the ally or enemy of someone else's.

I looked down to the next sewer connection, it wasn't that far away. They followed behind me, teetering down the latter. grimacing at the sludge I was waist deep in.

"On down back where we came from is a service entrance, keep going and you'll make it to the downtown area. Ask for directions, go straight to the police station and walk briskly past any dark alleyways. Keep going, don't wait or stop, just go-"

"What are you talking about Percy?" Clarisse asked.

"No one else needs to get hurt, town should only be three miles away-"

"I'm coming." Will cut in.

"What-"

"I said I'm going." He took a shaky breath. "Those assholes killed my brother and I would very much like to beat an evil clown to death with his own crowbar."

"That's beside the point, no one else needs to get hurt-"

"Including you Percy, your nine years old and standing in a sewer trying to rescue people you didn't have the care to know. Tell me what the fuck gives you the right to be a fucking hero when you have it all set out for you-"

"Will-"

"Who did you have die? Who the fuck are you trying to avenge? What gives you the fucking right to tell me I don't need to get hurt when this things already killed the only thing I've ever had!?"

I cast my eyes down, biting my lip so hard that I could taste the iron in my mouth. I wanted to say something, tell him all I had lost and all of the shit that was riding on me fighting to save these people. Wanted to tell him just what a freak I was and how I could kill him right then in there and everyone would think it was a bad dream. I wanted to show just what he was saying and all of it would come falling out if I didn't bite my tongue so hard.

But I didn't, I turned my back and walked towards the opening in the ceiling.

"Don't ask what you don't want to know."

Then, silence.

"Are you coming or not?" I didn't wait for them to make up their minds.

_

The next room wasn't any better than the last.

In fact, worse.

Much worse.

I was silent through the process of breaking through the thin concrete layer, refusing myself the satisfaction of relishing my anger. Instead I stared at the shadowed brick wall on the other side on the sewer, hoping that whoever was in that room didn't have a slaughtered boy wonder sprawled across the floor. I couldn't get the image out of my brain, glassy eyes and no expression. cold hands, skin without color. I knew that it wouldn't happen, couldn't happen. That the future couldn't change, wouldn't change, hadn't changed from the way I saw it. Unless it could. Unless it did and Dick was on the aged stone floor with glassy eyes and cold pale skin. Dead.

No, he had a future. He had, he had life and he just couldn't be dead. _Please don't be dead._

I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall, exhaling the built up tension in my shoulders. Lou and Cecil had gladly ditched the joint like smart people who live in horror movies, but Will, the ever deepening thorn in my side had taken up the roll of standing on the other side of the latter, glaring at the ground like it was the one to kill his brother.

At least he was taking his anger out on inanimate objects and not me.

In less than a minuet, Theo had broke through the surface and pulled himself through the surface. I started climbing the latter with Clarisse following me, a lump in my throat. I pulled myself through the surface with the little upper body strength I had and rolled onto the ground not wanting to look at the scene. Until I did.

I breathed and closed my eyes. It's wasn't him, it was some poor girl that looked like she had half of her faced burned off by acid. _Not dead._ repeated in my head as the sweetest phrase that I had ever heard.

And then Clarisse screamed. My eyes shot open. Clarisse _screamed,_ she hadn't even so much as shed a tear at the fact that she was drugged and placed into a room where a body lay in the center. Now she had screamed. It sounded so heartbroken, like a woman had been taken from her child.

She was running, chasing the last edges of rationality towards the girl in the center. She whimpered and fell to her knees, throwing herself over the stiff body. I heard her crying, sobbing. Breathing shakily and struggling not to let out any noises.

" _Selina."_ It was chocked out with futile premises, as if the name would bring forth some kind of response.

Selina was dead, cold hard dead. Half of her face was burned by acid, reveling the inner lining her mouth, teeth and all. The side of the eye rotting inside her skull and half a head of her hair decayed and burned. Like the recreation of Two-Face on an innocent high school girl. Suddenly, I didn't want to look at them anymore. I didn't know her, didn't know most of everyone, but the expression of pure suffering was too much to take.

The rest of the people already looked dead on the inside. I didn't ask for their names as I told them travel down the sewer. I didn't care and neither did they. There were no objections and no sudden growing of consciousness. Will, Theo and I all watched in silence as Clarisse struggled not to feel what was impossible not to feel.

Then she wasn't, she stood up on shaky legs, back straightening and fists clenching. When she turned around, it wasn't misery on her face, not suffering, just pure unadulterated rage. She stalked past us, footfalls like thunder in her heavy combat boots.

"Let's go." She growled. and dropped back into the sewer.

We all deal with grief in different ways. Most try to suck it up and act like nothing was ever bothering them. Society, I find, would like us to be strong and get over it and continue on with our lives. Whether it be your pet goldfish or your mother. They expect death to be a short coming, a quick and go. That's not how it works, death is process, a feeling. It's drawn out by the people who never imagined how to live without you near them. Some deal with tears, a numbness in which you can't even think any more, and sometimes, it ends in anger.

-

We didn't get lucky another time. As lucky as you can get with a room full of people staring at a corpse in the middle of the floor. As soon as we entered the surface, there was a man with a gun pointed at me and Theo. I held up my hands and tried on my best scared little boy face. I was silently hoping that the others wouldn't follow as we stepped out and backed against the wall.

The gunman looked like your typical henchman. Dark brown hair lining a face with to stubby features, long thick nose and thin crusty lips. And it was Theo staring down the barrel of the pistol. I had created contingencies for these types of situations, maneuvers that could be executed as, none 100% effective, but then again nothing was.

"Look man," I began looking up at him with innocent eyes. "I just wanted to know where the bathroom is."

He hesitated for a moment.

"What?"

"Ok so I may have snuck away from my group, but hey! This tour blows and I had to go pee!"

"What?" He sounded even more confused.

"Really man hurry! I'm about to pee my pants!" I did a show of squeezing my legs together.

"What?" He said louder, closing his eyes with the force and shaking his head. In that moment, he was on the ground with his gun kicked away and a broken trachea.

I grinned and picked up the gun, testing it's weight in my hand. Theo just stared at me, a bit miffed.

"I cannot believe that worked."

"Neither can I, I should have gone with number 12SBAlpha, or as I call it, 'Are You My Mummy?'" I shoved the gun into the side of my pants and grinned wider.

"You guys can come out now, it's safe, but be quiet."

"You are so fucking weird." He huffed.

"I'll take that as a complement."

He shook his head and continued to etch down the hall. Depending on what sector we were in, the hallway might lead us to the commons area, something that may wanted to be avoided at all costs. These passageways, unlike the room, were lined with _very_ non-ominous lights if you sense my sarcasm. But, better than no light at all.

Being here was counterproductive to any cause, but call me curious, or stupid, either one. We needed to rescue the people out of the rooms and wait for Batman to come and save the day, not gallivanting about and risking our lives for exploring. Diverging off the set plan only works in love stories and adventure genres, not the horror film we were taking part in. No scratch, the characters are too developed to be a horror movie, more like shitty reality TV, same thing.

The lights flickered, and a gunshot sounded around the corner in a thunderous warning. Clarisse jumped next to me and panic flared in her irises. If the person who fired that shot were to round the corner, we would be dead within seconds, no doubt. Unless....

Another shot rang out and laughter sounded. Laughter like he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

We had to get into a room, I could get away if it was just me, but that wasn't the case. and unless these people had experience in intense parkour, it wouldn't work out for any of us. No we had to get to a room, not if who I thought was laughing was laughing.

The nearest room was to the left of us, bolt locking from the outside. One of the more useful modifications that actually worked in my favor this time. The bolt was a huge slab of metal that was unable to be moved from the outside, one of the reasons that the rooms were so hard to escape, but they were meant to be locked from the outside. I rushed to it, pulling the lock as hard and carefully as I could. We had to get out of here. I opened the door as fast as I could with what felt like an 100lbs, but successfully ushered them inside. Will pulled me inside forcefully and shut the door behind him.

Staying out in the open was one of the worst ideas ever, not when the entire place was crawling with henchmen. It was a good way to get us all killed is what it really was.

"Jackson, any more good ideas?" Clarisse hissed with venom, but it was more pained that anything angry.

"Yeah, live." I responded quietly.

"Percy?" I knew that voice, know that voice. It couldn't have been.

I spun around, already running. I ran into his chest his arms wrapping around me.

"Dick" I chocked out in something near a sob.

"Leave it to you to save my ass. I feel sorta embarrassed, I should be the one to save yours." He grinned.

"You should feel embarrassed, I expected you to be across town by now." _Just don't be lying on the floor dead._

He laughed in response, it was the most freeing sound I had ever heard.

"We need to get these people out of here, I've already contacted B, he should be here to save all of our asses in no time." I buried my face into his chest, he smelled like sweat and grass, but I didn't care, I had just been running through a sewer.

"Not to be clueless, but where are we and how the hell did you escape?" He questioned bluntly .

"In Gotham's doomsday bunkers, and we escaped through the sewers like normal people." At that, he slapped himself in the face and drug it down his face, ashamed at himself because it should have been obvious.

"Not to be rude," Clarisse interrupted, ever the lovely person. "But who are you and what the hell are we going to do now?"

"Were going to leave this shithole." I growled the same time Boy Wonder introduced himself.

"I'm Dick."

"Wow." Theo coughed.

"What?" Dick's face scrunched up.

"Nothing, just, you would like to be called that?" He looked like he was on the verge of laughter.

"If you have a joke, just say it, I've heard them all." I cackled at the fact that his face was beginning to flame red.

We would have kept uselessly conversing, but more rounds of gunfire sounded fro what seemed right outside the room. All that protected them was an unlatched door and two fighters not old enough to drink.

"We need to get out of here." I whispered backing away from the door.

"You know," Will began. "You keep saying that but what are we doing to actively escape."

"I'm doing things." Will raised his eyebrows.

"Things."

"Yes things." I whisper yelled.

That is when I scanned the room, stopping dead at two other silent people held captive with Dick. One with long, blond hair.

Artemis Crock was staring at me, looking like she was deciphering whether or not I was an atomic bomb or a firecracker. She could wait, I had to get these people to safety, not play 'I Spy' with someone that already knows all of the answers.

"Percy." Dick said, I pulled my head away, realizing I was staring.

"Oh yeah, escaping. Were gonna have to go through the door, whatever is on the other side would hear us breaking through the concrete. We have to do this quietly." Dick nodded but looked unsure.

"That's suicide." Will hissed.

"I'm glad you feel that way, but so is every other option."

"I think," said a voice from behind me, _Artemis. "_ That waiting for rescue is the best option."

"It would be, If who we are dealing with wasn't a psychotic clown." I sighed and rubbed my temples.

"The Joker, in his first rampage erupted the entire city into chaos. Blew up hospitals and boats to prove that no one is really good or evil when it comes down to their life. Now, it seems he is solely fixated on destroying his bane in the most slow an painful way possible. By destroying his person. The one thing that Batman wants to have is to save the lives he hadn't been able to save. So what if you couldn't stop the chaos from raining and all the people from dying, when your the only one who can stop it. It's an endless cycle of responsibility and fighting. The way to kill your sole purpose in life is to not kill him but to make him rot from the inside."

"So your saying that were all going to die regardless?" Theo asked.

"No, I said that he wants us to die." I looked at him with pursed lips. "This buildings old, structurally flawed. A couple of charges will bring it down."

"He's going to blow the place." Dick added helpfully.

"And since Batman is on his way, that time is going to be soon, we need to escape." I finished. Will drew in a breath and turned away.

"Awesome," Clarisse blew a hair out of her face. "We should probably leave now."

-

There a lot of things that define bravery. It's not always a hero picking up a sword and fighting, nor a man heading off to war. Sometimes bravery was standing tall when no one else wanted you to, for something you believed in. Sometimes bravery was chasing after dreams, and sometimes they where putting your dreams away for the greater good. All of us are a little brave, no matter what we do or where we come from.

The best option, sometimes doesn't always work out. Life doesn't follow some plan that the only thing left to do will work, because sometimes it will be that last thing you'll ever do.

I heard the shot before I felt it, but I didn't feel it, which was weird. I was pretty sure a crazy clown was pointing a gun at me, my head working through all possible contingencies. Then the gun fired, but I felt no pain, no fair of red in my chest nor sudden urge to fall like they did in the movies.

And then, Will was falling in front of me. Eyes fluttering. Red blooming through his white school dress shirt.

Will, dying.

Will, saving my life.

Laughter, The Joker, he was laughing. Still pointing the gun at me. The greasy green hair falling into his face as he clutched his stomach. Like Will dying was the funniest thing in the world.

I took the gun out of my waistband and shot him in the leg.

He stopped laughing and fell to the ground. Dick went to action, taking his gun and knocking him out.

It dropped out my shaking hands and I fell to my knees, next to Will. My hand coving up the blooming hole I his chest. He looked at me, shocked eyes. He was afraid.

"Y-your going to be ok. Well get you to a hospital, your going to live. Please Will, don't-." My voice hitched.

"We both know I won't be. Too close a hit to the aortic valve, I'll bleed out in minuets. I want to be a med student, believe me I know." He coughed, blood came out of his mouth.

"Don't, please don't. Too many people have died. You have to live." I pleaded.

"One more isn't going..to make a difference." His speech was slurred. His heart rate was slowing.

"It will to me, don't die please."

"I'll try..." His eyes closed.

"Will don't you dare close your eyes." He didn't respond. The beats got slower. "Will" I croaked.

"Percy." A hand rested on my back. "He's dead."

"No his hearts still beating. Even after clinical death he still has 3 minuets till the start of irreversible brain damage and brain death. We can-"

"Percy." Dick spoke softly, taking my hands coated in his blood away from his chest. "He's gone."

"No he's, we can. I can. I can-can-can. I-" His arms wrapped around me.

"It's over, their gone." And I was crying, sobbing into his chest.

"He's gone." I repeated.

"He's gone."

_And soon, so will I. But you weren't laying on that floor with cold, glassy eyes._


	22. Don't Let The Dreams Touch You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Percy. :(

Dreams were fluid. Timeless.

You could delve deep into you conscious and stay for hours, unmoving, grounded and not have have the slightest familiarity with the world passing outside your eyelids. Or, you could feel like you were trapped inside your own mind for hours, in fleeting nightmares and never ending dreams.

I could stay asleep forever, making up worlds in my mind and living without cause or pain, or living a tragedy over and over, then, if I wanted, wake up for school the next morning.

That's exactly what would happen, if it wasn't for the fear of losing. Losing sight of what I had, losing familiarity with the people around me, losing myself....It was so easy to get wrapped up in someone else's story, someone else's desires and dreams, that you no longer care for your own. So eventually, I woke up.

I wanted to wake up now.

"Percy."

I looked up, staring back at her. Her gaze was steady, _sympathetic._ I didn't want sympathy, not for this, never for this. I needed her to tell me what was wrong with me and how to fix it, not her _sympathy._

"You drifted off." She supplied, I blinked owlishly at her.

"Sorry, Mrs. Lance." I mumbled after a moment. "Lost in thought."

"Do you want to share those?" She inquired, I swallowed.

Did I want to tell her that I felt like my own mind was attacking me? That my greatest weapon told me on a daily basis to stop it all and sleep forever using a more permanent method. That I didn't really no what I felt so on Earth would I tell her.

  
"Not particularly." She exhaled softly. Something less than a sigh, but never in contempt.

It wasn't anything that I couldn't figure out by myself. They say that talking to others helps, but the only one I trusted to really understand me was myself and a seven year old and that seven year old was on a suicide mission to bring his dead sister back to life and myself and I weren't on speaking terms. 

 

I didn't want to talk at all, I wanted to sleep and stalk others, completely ignoring my own thoughts. 

 

"As the league member required to do psychological evaluations, I would like to know what thoughts you have over the failsafe simulation." She leaned back her chair, staring at me intently. I nearly fidgeted under her gaze.

 

"What about it?" I mirrored her position. "I find that the only person I care deeply enough for wasn't affected, it's hard to get traumatized when your selfish."

 

"But you feel responsible." She drawled. I clenched my teeth.

 

"I feel sorry, to the members of the team, for not being able to save them any further." I sighed shakily, wringing my hands before I remembered that it was a nervous tick and I was showing unnecessary weakness. I clenched my fists as I realized.

 

"It's not your fault, it's not anyone's fault. That's the nature of an accident, no one meant any harm and no one blames you or M'gann." She leaned forward in her leather chair and I felt myself sinking in mine. "Your allowed to feel responsible, even though you only ever tried to help. But I find that we usually pile everything on ourselves instead of allowing others to suffer."

 

"Sometimes I don't feel anything, and that scares me, but when you have the powers I do, it's hard not to feel like you should have seen it coming." I didn't meet her gaze.

 

"Despite what you think, not everything is like what it is in your dreams."

 

_\---FLASHBACK---_

 

_I had woken from a nightmare, to find that I never left it._

 

_A nightmare where I found myself forgetting that it was a nightmare, the kind that everyone dies and no one has time to mourn. The kind that you feel so utterly hopeless because you can't control your mind, therefore, you cannot stop it from twisting everything you love and turning your own fears against you._

 

_I had woken up, bleary-eyed and cursed with a raw throat, which hadn't happened in a while. Confused was a word I would use to describe it. I was confused, because I don't get nightmares. I control what I see in my sleep, so how on Earth had I gotten a nightmare?_

 

_Except, I didn't have a nightmare, because I caught then edge of white fading from the corner of my eye._

 

_A vision, I had had a vision. A vision of death, only death._

 

_I had never gotten up from my bed faster, putting on the usual black cloths and a pair of sunglasses before stalking to the cave and taking a zeta tube to Mount Justice._

 

_I heard the system announce my arrival with a sense of dread. I had never really stuck around long enough to return to the home base, so, in a literal sense, this was my first time here. It just had to be under these circumstances, because I knew what they were going to see, and for a moment I felt what they were going to feel and I couldn't breathe._

 

_I also hadn't faced the entirety of the League before, only brief glimpses and exchanged words. Most of them didn't even know I existed. That thought alone made me want to turn around and run. But this was more important than my shitty sense of self preservation. This was the team, the team that I watched most nights asleep, watching then grow and argue and fight for their lives and for others lives._

 

_So, being the awesome person that I am, I stepped into the room._

 

_They were already deep under, stone cold and unmoving. I could feel the Martian's death grip on all of their minds, struck out by pure emotion. In other words they were panicking and attempting to wake them all up._

 

_"Her mind is too strong." My voice rang out, causing most of their heads to snap towards me._

 

_"You contacted someone, Batman?" Aquaman growled in more of a disapproving statement then question. "And him?"_

 

_"I didn't need to." Batsman responded, gliding over nearer towards me, until he was towering over my head._

 

_I lifted my chin defiantly, staring  at him through the thick black frames. I only had to purse my lips and give a small shake of my head before he understood that this was worse than they thought. He gave a slight nod and moved out of the way, it took that as a signal to proceed accordingly, walking toward them._

 

_"Jesus, how old are you?" Flash questioned, bewildered. He was kneeling near Wally, hand placed on his shoulder. I frowned._

 

_"Not important." I lifted my head toward them. "How long have they been pulled off course?"_

 

_Martian Manhunter was the one to answer, J'onn, I reminded myself. Abilities included flying, mind reading and manipulation, invisibility. Uncle to M'gann._

 

_I cocked by head as he answered. "Approximately 4 minutes and 37 seconds."_

 

_No immediate action taken, most likely due to ignorance to the severity of the situation. They_ _didn't_ _know what could happen._

 

_"I'm sure you have figured by now that Miss Martians mind far surpasses that of yours,_ _J'onn_ _." His expression_ _didn't_ _change,_ _I_ _swallowed. "The problem with this mostly revolves around the fact that her powers are_ _connected_ _heavily to her_ _emotions_ _."_

 

_"Are_ _you_ _saying that this is her fault?" Clark_ _growled_ _,_ _I_ _shook my head slowly._

 

_"No, never. She_ _hasn't_ _discovered_ _the true range of her powers. She saw Artemis die and her mind took control of the simulation."_

 

_"It's supposed to_ _be_ _harmless,_ _they_ _don't_ _suffer much trauma because it_ _will_ _never feel real. When_ _she_ _took control it became_ _real_ _. They still try and_ _save_ _the_ _world, but everyone who dies, the_ _entire_ _Justice_ _League disintegrating, the entire Earth_ _resting_ _on their shoulders, they can feel it all."_

 

_Everyone in the room went_ _quiet_ _, dead silent. I looked to Batman who just squinted in_ _response_ _. Ok so maybe the dark monologue was too much, too late now._

 

_"The only way to release everyone from the simulation would be to stop Miss Martian from controlling_ _it_ _. Subsequently, that means someone has to kill her inside the_ _simulation_ _." I elaborated._

 

_J'onn tilted_ _his_ _head towards his niece, frown deepening._

 

**_I can do it._ ** _I spoke_ _on_ _his mind._ _**I feel that it would be insensitive for** _ _**you** _ _**to have to** _ _**kill** _ **_her_ ** **_, even if_ ** **_it's_ ** _**not real.** _

 

_He_ _moved_ _his eyes to me. Contemplating._ **_That_ ** **_would be preferred._ ** _He answered._

 

_I nodded, clapping my_ _hands_ _._

 

_"Alrighty then, someone do me a favor and grab my body before_ _I_ _hit the ground? Thanks." I_ _reached_ _to place a_ _palm_ _over Miss_ _Martians_ _head._

 

_I_ _felt_ _myself_ _falling as my eyes were enveloped in a field of white_. 

 

\--- _FLASHBACK OVER_ \---

 

I felt myself slowly sinking futher into the chair as we sat in silence. Well, silence as in silence in the air. I was sure both of our minds were working overtime to compensate for lack of better words to speak. Talking was overrated, but necessary. Why was it so hard to find the right words?

 

"Do you think I'm different?" I said at last, after at least a few minutes of contemplation. She leaded forward in her chair.

 

"I think-" she began. "if you were someone who was different, then your certainly in the right place." 

 

"I feel like here us a sepret world, the Justice League the supervillians trying to destroy humanity and create chaos," I helplessly wrung my hands again,  not caring enough to stop myself. "It like I'm just watching everything descend into Hell, not being able to touch, but just watching as all my words fall flat."

 

"You think that you can't make a difference? That you aren't enough to tip the tables?" Her voice was soft, soothing. 

 

"When I see things, they happen. No matter how I try to stop it. The cease of destruction is just the temporary evasion, what I do to stop what I see causes it." My nails were biting into my palm oncemore.

 

"So you feel trapped by destiny?" She concluded.

 

"I feel like that's an over simplification, I feel trapped by what is fated to happen. Knowing that I can't stop it."

 

"I'm not going to pretend to know whether or not you can stop it or not. But I will tell you this," she pointed at me. "Don't let that weigh on your shoulders, because that's no way to live." 

 

_Well that seems pretty damn hard to accomplish._

 

"These sessions are confidential, yeah?" I asked

 

"Yes, they are, but due to who your uncle is, I don't believe they can stay that way forever." I found myself nodding numbly.

 

"I don't need forever. I need here and now." My face twisted into a grimace as I slinked away from her questioning gaze.

 

"I'm listening." She responded, I wasn't sure if that was supposed to be reassuring.

 

"We had an encounter with the Joker, I didn't react as well as I should have." My legs drew to my chest, taking a shuddering. "Ironically, dealing a madman that dwells is chaos made me come to a startling logical psychological evaluation." 

 

"And what," she paused, her eyes bearing down on me. "Might that evaluation be?"

 

"I'm going to die." There it was, out in the open for all to hear. I could have stopped breathing if she hadent raised her eyes brows in question.

 

"I mean, we all die sooner or later. Whether your 80 or you haven't even had a chance to live get. Death, like nature, doesn't care who or what you are, it's unbiased and impartial. But, I saw it and....." I took a shuddering breath.

 

"Percy...?" She trailed off. I could feel it, her _sympathy_ _._

 

"They said that men are no better of knowing their fate. Sometimes what you do to stop it is what causes it. I saw myself die, in my dreams. I can't let the escape my mind, knowing I'm going to die."

 

"Its inevitable. Everything else that I saw, I couldn't stop it. I was never able to change the future. I'm going to die and it's ticking down like a clock that has no numbers. I don't know when, and I-" my voice cracked. 

 

_Just finish it._

 

"I came to the realisation in my phycological evaluation that I'm scared and....I don't want to die." 

 

She got up from her chair without a word and pulled me to her chest, coupled with me letting a pathetic noise escape along with a few tears. 

 

"I don't know how to feel what your going through, but I felt that you needed and actual, affectionate hug." She explained.

 

I couldn't stop crying, in the midst, I was apologising pathetically. To he'll with all controlling emotions. 

 

"I'm sorry." I sniffed." I don't even know why I'm crying."

 

"You said it yourself." She recalled, pulling away. "You're scared."

 

"Don't you go telling anyone I cried." I pointed a finger at her in mock sterness. "I tell you doctor I'm ashamed of it." 

 

She laughed and ruffled my hair, which prompted a glare in return. 

 

"I know you'll figure this out Percy," was what she spoke after a moment. "But know, you'll never have to do it alone." 

 

I glanced up at her through black bangs falling down into my forehead. She had a smile plastered on her face. One that I would never be able to replicate. 

 

"Maybe." _Lies._

 

"I'll see you next week Percy." She responded as I walked out.

 

"Yeah." _They can_ _never_ _know. It will break them._

 

_It will break them anyway._

 

_No, It will break me._

 

_They_ _can't_ _know._

 

_You're_ _a lier....._

 


	23. Above All Else

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit happens, Bruce is a good father who doesn't care about the knives. Percy doesn't deserve this.

The day began like toilet seat.

To say that it was frigid, shockingly cold and not only counting the temperature. It felt as though everyone held they're breath and bit their tongue.

That particular analogy also worked with how it was simmilar to fecal matter, given that all anyone could muster up was a scowl or a vacant look. No one was particularly expressive anyway, but at this amount, the usually busy city was erie and unnerving.

They, above all else looked scared. The news anchor on the downstairs TV that Alfred had turned on was reporting news with wide eyes, heart vacant from the already fake smile that graced her lips. The people on the street I glanced at through the car window scurried around like rats. Solemn faces was all I saw as I passed kids in halls, it was quiet, like they were mourning.

But they were, because out of hundreds of high class children that roamed the halls, 24 had died less than two weeks ago.

I didn't feel up to much smiling either.

So yeah, the world felt quite like a toilet seat at the moment, vacant and empty. Though, the difference was that toilet seats tended to warm up as you sit on them, the longer I sat on the feeling that I wished was apathy, it only got more bitter and raw.

On the car ride home, I looked over at Dick sitting across from me and staring out the window with a fist propping up his chin up. I wanted to ask him if he was alright, if it felt cold to him too. I knew the answer already though, we all felt the tense disquietude and foreboding recreancy in the air around us, as suffocating and revolting as breathing into a paper bag for too long. It made me lightheaded, having a clouded mind like looking through the thick fog in your life and trying to decide if the object a foot away was a car or a tree.

I opened my mouth to speak to him, tell him that I was sorry that I never really spoke to him, sorry that I still haven't spoke to him. To be honest, in light of it all, the shear amount of things that have happened just over the past few months, I had no earthly clue where to start. 

But I had to start somewhere. So I looked to him and opened my mouth, letting the the world's bullshit fall out.

"What do you know about time travel?" 

His head snapped sideways to look at me, mouth slack and eyes wide. I internally cringed. It had been so quiet today, my hoarse voice sounded deafening in contrast. Also, _why the hell did I chose time travel?_

"Um...well I've read some theories about it, honestly if you want to know about time travel, Flash is an expert there with how many times he's changed it." He squirmed then before staring back out the window.

"What do you believe? I mean I know there are alot of differnt theories." I questioned, not letting the optertunity of easing the tension slip out of my hands.

He just shrugged, opening his mouth to reply but closing it again and shaking his head to himself.

"Some people think of time like a river." His eyes flicked back toward me as I spoke. "That no matter how much you through rocks into the river the stream will always go in the the same direction and the current will always pull the water back on course. The theory that the universe always self corrects and you may change some events but it will always end the same way."

He bit his lip before seemingly deciding something a d turning towards me.

"It's an okay anology, but honestly, I chose to believe that things can be changed. If something happenes that you have the power to fix but end up not changing anything, than that's depressing." He spoke lightly, part inhibited, part suspicious.

"I don't think that we can, I mean, somethings can't be changed." This was not a good topic, why did I bring this up?

"That's not any way to live, thinking that you can't change things."

My eyes avoided his face and I turned back towards the window, not responding to his comment. I felt his eyes linger on me for a moment more before he turned his head and mirrored my actions. 

The rest of the car ride was spent in silence, partly to the fold of thoughts that overcame the need of conversation, partly because neither of us had any more to say. What could I say _? I might die soon fighting a dude that calls himself the lord of time and I just wanted you to know that maybe we're not as close as I wanted to be? But sorry yeah, I'm going to die and there's nothing you or I can do about it, tough break. Have you seen the news? It horrible._

Whatever I had to say to him, I had a feeling that the right words were never going to come out, no matter how much I tried not to be a fumbling idiot who takes socially inept to a new level. 

The silence could eat me alive and I would let it, because having nothing to say was better than having nothing good to say. 

Thankfully, silence did not devour my soul that day, and our personal brooding time was cut off by the sound of a chime coming from my pocket. I pulled my phone from my pocket, frowning at it. Due to me being me, I only had five contacts saved, two of which were currently in the car and the other one was a thirty year old man at work who happened to enjoy calling more. 

That left two options? First, Nico freaking di Angelo who was off on a quest to bring his dead sister back to life through his magical alien necromancy powers and whom I hadn't spoken too in a month. Partly because I was mad at him for selfish reasons, partly because I didn't know how to say that I was sorry. His name seemed to always flash on my contact list like a fire alarm, a warning for trepidation, but something that couldn't be ignored. So, I ruled that one out. 

That only left Thalia Mystery Last Name. I had given her my number to tell me, A: when she needed help, B: When she had information, or C: when she wanted to discuss crazy conspiracy theories. She took that last one as a joke, so I doubted that it was what she wanted, but I was being completely serious. I mean things like the flat Earth and the moon landing being faked were bull, but I know enough aliens to not rule out that some of the government officials are implanted lizard people. 

Back to the point, which had been lost somewhere between dead sisters and lizard people. I turned on my phone and unlocked it, pulling up the messages app. 

**Thalia- We need to meet.**

I bit my lip, glancing at Dick who was still staring out the window, but you never know how much other people know. I looked back down before cradling the phone closer and replying quickly.

**You- Spring bridge near Robbinsville, 9pm. I'll find you.**

And I would, that was going to be the easiest part of the night. Finding her along the sidewalks and pulling her into an abandoned warehouse near there, because I had the feeling whatever she had to say did not include self preservation. 

**Thalia- Armed.**

I bit my lip. I was starting to regret my decision of ever becoming friends with her. She seemed more trouble than she was worth, but then again, so was I. 

I shut my phone off and shoved it back into my pocket, not liking the queasy feeling that had settled in the pit of my stomach. I glanced at Dick, who still stared out the window, pitifully ignoring my existence. I deserved that, but I doubted we would get to talk any time soon.

I sighed in discontent before leaning back into the seat and wishing that the world would go away. 

 

\---

 

The thing about telling someone to be armed, you must specify, or there will be confusion. I mean, not confusion as in, oops, I forgot my arms. But when you're looking at several knifes laid out on your bed, freshly sharpened and then you look at your pockets and wonder how many will fit in there, it's good to have specification.

I decided on four of them, two for the inside pockets of my jacket and two for the sheaths I had strapped to my waistband. Then I had no idea what to do with the other eleven throwing knifes on top of my comforter, but the meet up was five hours away and I was bored, so I went back to sharpening them. 

Then there was a knock on the door and I stopped mid motion bringing the sharpening tool against the blade, frozen.

"Percy?" Fucking _Bruce._ "Can I come in."

Let me get this straight, I didn't _squeak_ per say, but neither did a grunt in a manly fashion. I dropped the knife instantly on the comforter and ripped the blanket over them to cover the collection of knifes splayed out over the bed. He opened the door as soon as I made a noise that could have been 'come in' or a pained wail.

"What do you need?" I asked with a smile that I really hoped wasn't suspicious. 

He eyed me, probably knowing something was up because he is _Batman_ and he knew everything, but he must have determined that it was unimportant and turned to look at me with that goddamn calculating gaze.

"I have an assignment for you." He walked across the room, giving glances to the advanced computer setup and no doubt the bulletin board pitifully covered in the corner. You know, the one about my moms murder.

"An assignment?" I cocked my head and laid back on the bed, carful to avoid the place where the knives were poorly hidden.

"Yes." Was all the answer he gave me, staring at me with the eyes that could see through solid steel. I squirmed and crossed my arms over my chest. I waited for him to continue, but he just stared.

"Do go on." A broke into the staring contest, it was starting to become uncomfortable. I could tell that he was to caught up in his thoughts to notice. Something...personal perhaps?

He stood still for a moment longer before coming towards me, and it took me half a second to recognize that he was a second away from sitting on the pile of freshly sharpened knives. My mouth opened, no longer putting reason behind my words.

"Wait!" My voice came out as something like another embarrassing squeak, but much more alarmed and much louder. 

He paused mid motion, about to sit, but then straightened again and gave me a curious glance. One laced heavily with concern.

"Percy, what's under the blanket?" All the sudden I felt like a five year old, telling an adult a didn't eat the last cookie as crumbs are sprinkled like confetti across my chin.

"I think the question you need to ask yourself is what not under the blanket." I pressed my tongue against the front of my teeth. 

"Percy." He growled out in a sense of less concerned father and more terrifying vigilante. 

"It couldn't possibly be puppies, no matter how cute, I can't handle the responsibility. I-" He cut me off by pulling the covers away and I groaned.

Maybe if I ignored it, it would go away. I closed my eyes and pressed my cold hands over my forehead, I couldn't see it, it wasn't there. He would walk out the room like nothing happened and I would continue my night in peace, meeting up with another legacy of a lost alien race and then procede to probably get myself killed soon in the near future. If anything other than that happened, well, maybe it could be the death part.

"Why do you have knives on your bed." Back to angry dad, so maybe that death part would still play out.

"I was sharpening them." I responded simply, innocently. Yeah fucking right.

"Any particular reason you are sharpening knifes?" I risked a glance up to him, he didn't look angry per say, more amused than anything. _Fucker._

"Any particular reason you dress up as a bat and beat up criminals? People do what they do. You do you, I do me. We're all happy." He leveled a glare to me that wasn't as severe as I thought it was going to be, more a puppy that couldn't catch its tail.

He picked up the file on the desk he had set down earlier, and didn't hesitate to give it to me, then get the hell out of dodge. 

I opened my mouth to say something but there was no point, he walked out and I closed my mouth. That alone was a miracle.

With nothing else to do other than reel at the terse interaction, I sighed and hoisted the thick manila folder into my lap, ripping the top open. What was inside would have given me an aneurysm if I hadn't already had enough surprises today, but my threshold didn't stop my eye from twitching. 

Because on the stupid page was Luke Castellan, and I had to bite my lip to keep from screaming out in frustration. I had an assignment, I was going to be expected to do that assignment.

_Name: Luke John Castellan_  
_Age: 13_  
_DOB: 19 May 2004_  
_Gender: Male_  
_Eye Color: Blue_  
_Hair Color: Blond_  
_Race: Caucasian_

My eyes danced along the page, it was a basic identification, as if I could ever forget what he looked like, as if his fathers face wasn't forever burned in my retina. I turned the page with a lethargic swipe, as if all the sudden my hand now had to carry a family of mammoths. I swallowed thickly and read the damn thing.

_No known powers over time recorded, though does show skill in swordsmanship and slight of hand. Is now in hiding after the incident that resulted in the death of Annabeth Chase, but does not remain in contact with operative Kronos. Location unknown._

_Objective: Gain knowledge of location and make plans for contact._

I rubbed my forehead, reaching up to swipe the hair that had gathered in my face. Bruce would love to know where Luke was, the gist of the entire encounter. So would I, but I was never that simple. He was friends with Annabeth, meaning he knows how to shield him mind better than Batman himself. The wards that Annabeth left in his mind were unbreakable.

I threw the paper to the side, partially landing on a knife, and collapsed back into the mattress. Disappointing Bruce was not going to be a fun occurrence, but neither was looking through minds for hours on end for no reason. Neither alternative was pleasing. 

Sighing, I looked to the side of the dresser, the clock read _6:20._ I wanted to groan, but instead I gripped a knife in hand and lopped it at the board that hung the lord of times vandalized face. It hit the middle of his forehead. 

It didn't take long after that to push my arms through a coat sleeve, stick another knife into the boot side and climb out the bedroom window.

 


	24. When The Villians Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Say yay for three dimensional villains!

The night was darker than I remembered.

Not the sky per say, though that as well, but even though as the cold seeped though my jacket like it was a fishing net I found myself hesitating and obsessively pulling apart the smallest details. Like being outside for the first time in years and not being sure if the entire world was going to attack.

The information that Thalia had given was extremely vague, but I would find no use in knowing or asking, she obviously didn't want to talk about it over a cellular device where you never knew who could be watching. Now, I was regretting that decision, because she had told me to come armed and I wasn't sure if someone was after me. The thought process of looking for danger was more complicated when you didn't know what that danger was. Having thoughts like ' _Was that an actual baby in the stroller, or a high powered machine gun'_ was not helping in the least.

 

So, doing the smart thing for once, I climbed a building and watched the streets for a speck of black hair in the night walking across the entrance to the bridge. I vaguely remembered a quote on how frequently said bridge was blown up, but ignoring the statistic seemed like the best course of action for a bad case of inherited paranoia. Sitting still and waiting seemed like the best course of action, though a very vapid one. 

 

"Leo, what's the time." I asked, curling my knees into my chest. Watching the hordes of people with calculating eyes. None of them looked up, but I guess they learned not to in Gotham. 

 

" _It is 8:53 sir, an aproxímate 6 minuets 26 milliseconds from the time set."_ The AI chimed. I sighed.

 

"We've got to work on your definition of aproxímate, buddy." I folded my hands under the folds of my jacket, trying to keep whatever remaining warmth I had. 

 

" _Negative, sir. I have access to all dictionaries. Approximate's meaning is close to the actual, but not completely accurate or exact. I didn't include centiseconds, making the calculation significantly more vague."_ If an AI could argue, it would have been this one.

 

"Whatever you say." I drawled. I was getting distracted, loosing my focus on the crowd.

 

Leo didn't respond, thankfully, and I tried to mentally prepare myself for human interaction. If I didn't, then I would most likely come off as more of a constipated orangutan than a cool rebellious semi-functional superhero. Well, in retrospect, the monkey would have been more preferable. 

 

I tried to pull my knees closer to my chest in vain, it was cold and my face was beginning to burn from the wind, to the point where I could no longer feel my nose as I wiped it. Leo confirmed that it was past nine and I was about to call it quits but a figure walking down the side of the bridge stopped me. 

 

Someone limping, black hoodie, holding their side. Someone obviously in pain, with a spike of hair peaking out of the front that shined off the street light. 

 

I looked behind me, a block from the main road was an abandoned house that had been condemned as architecturally unstable due to age and the family had been evicted. The city hadn't torn it down yet. It was perfect for secretly meeting up for shady things, which is why I set up a hide away in the basement.

 

I jumped to my feet, relishing in excuse to get moving and loosing out the joints that had felt like they were frozen solid. The top floors fire escape was only seven or so feet from the roof, flying down it and jumping quietly towards the asphalt seemed like the most mundane thing today, that caused a severe revaluation of my life that would no doubt be pushed off till in third period tomorrow. 

 

Now was game time.

 

"C'mon Leo, lets make like my self esteem and go invisible." Low blow to myself, to bad no one was there to here myself get burned. 

 

Like a proper I.A. Leo did as he was told and sent out the compressed suit technology that began to travel like water up my arm and encompassing me in a hole of black that began to fade like you were looking at normal air. If I subconsciously strutted out of the alley with the confidence of a paper thin model eating a salad, well, no one could exactly judge. You know, invisibility. 

 

I took off in a sprint towards her slightly hunched figure attempting to look normal walking down the sidewalk. I pursed my lips watching her, the way she was tensed, she was in heavy pain. I caught up and began to walk beside her, attempting to get a look at her face, it was motionless, as if she was a wall of bricks that you were waiting to slam into.

 

I tapped her on the shoulder after hesitating for a few moments, she wanted to talk, we were going to talk. She wiped her head around, looking for the culprit that I already knew wasn't going to be there. Because the culprit was me, and I was invisible. 

 

Looking at her now, I could see her more clearly, her eyes were sunk, soulless, hollow. There was a bruise that was swollen a popping out on her cheekbone and a split lip that was still bleeding. Her asking me to come armed made more sense now. 

 

I grabbed her wrist and tugged her to the side, into an empty alleyway, a shortcut to the place. She was startled to say the least, angry and frustrated to say the most, but deep tiredness was visibly clear. She did not want to get into another fight tonight. 

 

"Follow." Was all I said. 

 

Her head whipped around to where I stood, realization setting into her features, she parted her lips as if to speak but I pulled her hand deeper into the alleyway, walking though. She took a breath and let herself be led wordlessly. No sarcastic response, no rants about her dark unraveled plan. She really must be tired. 

 

I walked through the path of back ways that I had memorized in my dreams, some of the nicer ways of Robinsville, less dangerous than other places in Gotham. Soon, alleys turned into housing districts and I was pulling her though the back door of the abandoned house, shutting all the blinds and activating a minimal distance electromagnetic pulse that would take out any bugs inside the place that may have found their way in. All deactivating my suit, which pulled back faster than it had came out back into the ring. 

 

She collapsed on a couch, groaning and pulling her hand away from her abdomen. I watched as she pulled it away bloodied, the red staining her palms and soaking into her ripped up Death to Barbie T shirt. I wordlessly bent over under the kitchen where I had stocked one of many first aid kits. 

 

She had the audacity to look trepidatious as a pulled out a needle and started movements toward examining her abdomen. She glanced at me like a wounded animal that was full of rage, which wasn't far from the truth, and began to pull her self upright.

 

"I don't need your help." She growled, wincing after she attempted to shift.

 

"Bull, your bleeding out on my sofa from what looks like a knife wound, looking like shit mind you, and telling me that you would rather stick a needle into your skin around 12 times based on the size that wound and not immediately pass out and let me handle your fudging injuries. Stay the fuck still and let me help you." 

 

She blinked at me, the most coherent I had seen her, her eyes softened into something more of a calculating stare than stubborn anger. 

 

"Jesus, you have a mouth on you. It's so weird coming from a 9 year old." I glared. 

 

"I know graphic and offensive curses in 57 languages, fully fluent in 17 of them and yet I'm wasting my breath on explaining to you that I rarely let myself be a 9 year old." I took the antiseptic and poured it generously into the wound, she would have responded if she wasn't to busy clenching her teeth in pain. I quickly pulled on the pair of blue gloves

 

I took a lighter and touched the flame to the sides of the needle, sterilizing it. I stared at her quizzically, once her vision cleared and she saw me ready, she took a deep breath and nodded. When the needle pierced her skin she tensed and let her face fall into stone once again, breathing heavily through the pain.

 

"Relax, I know it hurts but you're too tense. Focus on your breathing." Her eyes flashed in indignation for a moment before she took the advice and leaned into the couch. I continued and pulled the wired thread gently through her skin. 

 

I made a silent noise of frustration in examining the wound further, the black fabric getting in the way.

 

"I'm going to have to cut the shirt off, or would you rather try and pull it off." She winced as she tries to lift her arm, face flaming red. That could off been from exertion, embarrassment or the other thing that would remain to go unmentioned.

 

"I can't lift my arm." She admitted, still breathing hard. "Just cut it off."

 

I breathed out a sigh and grabbed the sterile metal scissors from the box. I positioned them to the bottom hem of her hoodie before hesitating and looking up.

 

"If it makes you feel better, I'm probably gay, and you know, nine." She huffed and glared but it seemed to help the awkwardness.

 

"Shut the fuck up Jackson." I rolled my eyes.

 

A few minuets later she was angrily clenching her fists while a inserted the needle into her skin for the final time, tying the ends together. After I slapped a giant Band-Aid on the wound, I got up, throwing the unused thread in the trash and pealing off the gloves. Thalia sunk further into the couch as I yawned loudly and stretched, eyes half lidded. 

 

I turned toward her, head cocked to the side in question. She blinked slowly, her bright electric blue eyes not as angry as they were when they first met, but tired. I could tell it wasn't just the loss of blood, she was tired. 

 

I could relate.

 

"Who did this?" She squeezed her eyes shut tight, unclenching and clenching her fists.

 

"My brother." Her jaw was tight. 

 

"Oh." Shit.

 

"Yeah, Ares tends to be an asshole. Especially when you're trying to kill his dad. Doesn't matter if it happens to be your dad also." She huffed dryly. "Zeus follows Kronos around like a hopeless puppy, he would actually be useful to him if he could actually keep it in his pants."

 

"That's useful information." I shook my head to get rid of any lingering images. "Are we in danger?" She blinked again, like the words were to fast for her to process.

 

"We're always in danger." I glared a little and she sighed, relenting. "At the moment? No, he left me die, but not smart enough to figure out that the place he punctured was one of the few that would damage no vital organs, he thinks I'm dead..."

 

Her voice died off, filled with drowsy, lightheaded mumbling. 

 

"Than sleep here, I'll stay on watch and activate the lasers. We'll talk in the morning." The words fell on deaf ears and I swallowed, feeling like I should have brought way more than a few knives. 

  
Eventually, her breathing evened out and her eyes were no longer open. I sat on the edge of the couch and stared into the dark living room. Shooting Bruce a text that I'd be gone for the night, an emergency.

\---

By the time she came around it was late in the morning. Around 11 or so, but the sun had been showing through the curtains for hours already.

I had struggled to keep my eyes open for the night, and finally stoped staring at the wall after and hour and dug out a copy of _To Kill a Mockingbird_ from a bookshelf in the living room, but I finished reading it 7 hours ago. So I then migrated to a worn copy of Macbeth, which was better than reading _War and Peace_.

Thalia on the other hand, did not seem to enjoy her night of sleeping like the dead. She woke with a pained groan that had me wincing in sympathy. She had slept so heavily at one point I was worried she had slipped into a coma while I was preoccupied internally pointing out symbols and themes like a fucking nerd. 

She blinked and glared at the ceiling before she turned her head and found something new to glare at, it was only fair that the thing happened to be me. I cocked my head and gave her a once over, shrugging and standing up to fall onto the couch next to her.

"You slept for 11 hours, sorry if you needed to be somewhere, but you probably needed that." I told her, she didn't mad, only the same tired I saw the night before.

"The only people that I had to get back to are dead." She shut her eyes tightly and breathed. "So no."

I stared at her, biting my lip. She opened her eyes and looked over to me, the scoffed painfully.

"Gods kid, don't look like such a kicked puppy. When you're like we are, people don't live for long. You learn to get over it after a while." My frown deepened.

"What exactly are we?" It came out as more of a squeak than a question.

She stared. Mouth opened. Surprised.

" _Are you telling me no one told you?"_ She yelled, coupled with her gaunt, pale face, it was creepy.

"No?" Was the reply that came out.

"What the hell?" She grabbed her hair in fistfuls that looked painful.

"I mean I got the basic run down by the fake Annabeth that invaded my mind and drove me to my own supposed death, but that was super vague and all I got was that we were descendants from an ancient alien race and that there are monsters that like to hunt and kill us occasionally. If that's all you know than that's fine but, I don't really know where to start to get any more information-" She held a hand over my mouth to shut me up on my very fast talking.

"Gods kid, I didn't know you knew _nothing_ , I thought they would have at least covered the history." She dug her palms into eyes.

"I guess the less I knew the easier it is to kill me." She pondered that for a moment, shaking her head.

"So you don't even know why Kronos is trying to kill you? God, no wonder you're so fucking innocent. No prophecy, no Progs. That's freaking sad, someone should have told you."

"Progs?"

"The alien race that were descended from, Progens (Pra-jens), they decided to get freaky with a group of humans back during Egyptian times and turned out, they were biologically compatible. They had a dominant gene for powers that their systems couldn't activate, they gave that gene to us and turned out that our systems could. "

"So we have powers because E.T. got lucky and now people kill us." I drawled.  

"For our blood. Their like vampires, the hunters drain you, alter memories and get the heck out of dodge." She clarified.

"Why?" My eyebrows drawled together. She shrugged.

"If you talk to one long enough to figure out, be sure to tell me." Was the only response I received.

I had history, biological explanation to a degree, now all I needed was motive.

"Why does everyone seem to want to kill me?" She drew a breath, like she was waiting for me to ask that one particular question that she didn't want to answer.

"Its because of the prophecy. A prophecy that has you killing the lord of time." _Oh._

"And where he kills me." She grins, not like she's happy, but like she's five seconds from going insane and killing everyone inside a two hundred mile radius.

"So you've seen it? So has everyone else. It's the reason why everyone I love is dead." She was more ferocious now than tired. I slunk into the couch. "The son of Poseidon kills the thousand year old lord of time in Apollo's dream, he gets pissed and kills Poseidon. Somethings you can't change. That was a moment etched in time, not even the lord of time can change it."

"So my mother was killed because a drunk asshole got his directions wrong?" She clicked her tongue.

"When everyone found out you were alive after all, it started a war. Once again, everyone wanted to take him down and end his little tyranny over descendants, but he had to many loyal and powerful by his side. People like my dad and my brother. Apollo, a seer. Hera, the mega bitch with no powers, not that she ever needed them. Aphrodite with seduction and hypnotization. And a lot of others I can't remember."

"Sounds like a shit family." She snorted.

"My families dead, Jason, Annabeth, that traitorous cunt who better be dead." I bit my lip.

_It would have been better if I didn't know anything._

"Take it from me, take that nice family you have, lock them in a vault and throw away the key. The worlds about to go to shit and they'll be right in the center of it." She coughed and groaned.

"They can take care themselves." _I hope._

She went back to staring at me, curious. She seemed to be a very curious person, beneath all of the rage.

"Percy, that's why I wanted to meet." She sighed."

"Because of my family?"

"Because of you and dying and how those two words relate." She pressed a hand to her abdomen and hissed. "We may have accelerated healing, but prophecies don't lie. You're going to die."

"Thanks for the reminder." I frowned, not understanding her worry over my mental health.

"Oh my god, you thick moron. I'm trying to tell you, you're going to die, to kill the lord of time. I'm trying to tell you that you won't have to do it alone." She quieted down after that last part.

"Who said I was alone?" I growled, but that didn't phase her. She shook her head again.

"You know very well that you haven't told that family of yours about your ominous death, who else would you have told?"

"I don't need anyone's help." I sniffed, trying and failing to keep water from clouding in my eyes.

"You need all the help you can get." She spoke softly. "How else will you tell them how you died?"

"I'll leave a note." She went silent for a long time.

"You better write it quick, because I happen to know where he is, and that he's an inch from life." 

 "lets go kill the lord of time."  
  



	25. Conscious

Gotham is beautiful, in it's own way.

It's ridden with crime, mutilated by poverty in most downtown areas, filled with the remaining gangs that wouldn't stay gone and run by corruption and selfishness. Gotham is hostile and awful, but it also has history. The amount of things that had happened behind closed doors and inside the safety of walls was immeasurable, but it was shaped through years of hardships and so many people making the wrong choices.

It's old and cruel, but it's still beautiful. Beautiful in the way blood bounces against snow, in the existence of beaches with shores made of shattered glass, and in the way that beautiful people can be monsters inside themselves.

Monster, _"an imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening."_ The monsters I saw were never imaginary, the were as real as the pain caused by fighting them. Wasn't that the purpose of monsters? Not to be imaginary, not to be the embodiment of the creature that once hid under your bed. The purpose of monsters were to stand in your way and make you doubt, doubt who you are, doubt the purpose of why you are alive and the real monsters aren't the ones that hide in your closet or meet their end at the tip of their blade.

The real monsters were the ones inside yourself, so to a point, monsters are imaginary.

But google said that monsters can be monstrous people, and that  _man_  certainly applied to that. His soul was corrupted, his life filled with pain and death and the only thing that filled his consciousness was for me to die so he could live.

Killing changes people, I had changed. He was a monster.....but so am I.

_\---FLASHBACK---_

_Thalia, being herself, is someone you didn't give orders to. She would listen lightly and be polite enough to let you explain why your right and then give you this long suffering stare before tearing you apart bit by bit as if she had brought a PowerPoint essay and was about to earn a doctorate in the art of telling people why they were wrong._

_This is honestly one of the best things about her. She's smart, but not an asshole about it. She's stubborn like a pickle jar lid when it doesn't matter and even more so when it does. She doesn't care about what you do in your past time, but only what you could offer her. She is honest when she needs to be and can lie like a god of mischief when she doesn't._

_Most of all, though, she cares. She won't admit it out loud that she cares about things, most likely a response to how many things she cared about were taken. She doesn't need to tell anyone though, it showed in her actions, buried deep under the layers of leather and spikes. She walked around with a heart of silver, where, unlike the non-reactive gold, her presence warded off evil. She shined in her own way without needing to be polished and coddled._

_She has good judgement to, she says someone is evil, evil they are. She points and says jump, you jump because if you don't then it will most likely end in you being injured to some extent._

_Kronos, was someone I had meant once in a dream, and then not. Both times were nightmares filled with death and fear._

_Kronos was a monster, a filthy monster who killed and ordered killing and did it with a smile. He was pitiful, the lowest form of low that you could reach in society. A liar, thief,_ Murderer. _He was evil. Sold his soul the first time he decided  to take another._

_And I was going to kill him._

_It was only fair, he had taken the lives of so many people, kids, parents, people that didn't deserve to die. My mother didn't deserve to die and neither did Annabeth's mother, Annabeth. The lies I had been fed in the process of luring_   _me to my ultimate death. Maybe that would happen today, maybe it wouldn't ._

_"Percy." My head snapped up at her soft tone, bloodshot electric blue eyes bored into me, ripping apart any pretense of secrecy. "Are you up for this ?"_

_We had relocated to a warehouse closer to where Kronos laid in a deluxe suit , nursing his broken ribs, hiding out like a clam closing it's shell._

_I pursed my lips, rubbing my elbow in thought. "I don't see how I have much of a choice, It's predestined, he's injured, your injured worse."_

_"You always have a choice, at least in this, murder's a big step." She pried further, taking the hand the she held her side with and laying it on my shoulder. I swallowed thickly and shrugged it off softly, not looking up to see her reaction._

_"I never had a choice in this Thalia, not from the moment I came into this world, definitely not when I leave it ." I nearly shivered at how cold my own voice sounded to my ears. Thalia was undeterred, grabbing my chin._  

_"For gods sake you're to young." Her eyes bored into me. "You shouldn't have to sound so old."_

_"Neither should you, I know you've been alive for longer than 100 years, suspended in time, but you shouldn't have to fight this. All of you dying is on me, if I was never born, none of this wouldn't have happened." She shook her head at me, releasing my chin from her grip._

_"I'm 236, spent half of that time as a tree. I've seen people being born and die before fate stuck his hand into it. None of this is on you Percy, the only thing I can tell you that you have to do, is remember why you are doing what you do." Her voice turned watery, in a moment of lost composure._

_"Tha-"_

_"You're not here because of fate, not because I've told you to kill the lord of time, but because inside the nine year old that doesn't act like a nine year old, you have the goodness and the purity of the brightest light on any planet, in any galaxy. " She poked my chest with her index finger. "I know you'll do what is right, because you, Percy, can never do wrong."_

_"There is no one who can do know wrong." I choked out._

_"Well, I think Tom Hiddleston is someone who exists, so either he's not perfect, or your a liar." Despite the tears threatening to spill over, a laughed forced it's way out of my throat._

_She smile despite herself, picking her leather clad self of the floor and walking to the window. She looked into the night and breathed, obviously trying to keep her composure. She and so many others needed me, it wasn't just me trying to save myself. There were larger things._

_"I'm up for it." I spoke up, shakily. She tilted her head to the side, she almost look disappointed that I didn't refuse. Nonetheless she nodded in acknowledgement. Her heeled combat boots clinked onto the tile as she stepped back towards him._

_"Then we do it."_

_\---FLASHBACKOVER---_

My head still hurt, a pounding in the frontal lobe like a war zone pulsing with shockwaves from an explosion.  I stumbled along the sidewalk, tripping over my feet with blurred vision in a daze. Nothing looked right, it felt different here, it was all too much and I felt if I kept looking at where I was it would finally show it's true form and disappear.

It was still Gotham though, I would be a fool if I thought I could have escaped it's soul draining force. The buildings were familiar, the same alleys laid between concrete buildings. It looked a step cleaner than the Narrows, but I couldn't place where I was.

It was still dark, despite it being dark when it had happened, and nearly sunrise. _How much time had I lost?_ I Twirled around the way I came, looking back up the street for any familiar structures. A car horn blared through the cities noises, lights flashing.

Bile piled at the base of my throat, I felt like dropping and falling asleep on the cold concrete. I would probably end up dying like that, but the thought was nice in passing even though it offered no comfort.

I wanted to go home, dig under the blue comforter and sleep of the feeling of sickness, the feeling rising in the back of my throat. Something told me that I couldn't go home right now. That though hadn't offered any comfort either.

A man running down the street gave no acknowledgement to my exsistance in passing, and I had to swivel my torso to avoid getting knocked to the ground. Being invisible wasn't something you need a high-tech suit for, apparently. He was obviously a criminal, but all of those thoughts felt so far away, like they didn't matter. The only thing that felt like it mattered was the feeling of something deeply _wrong,_ like a crawling under my skin.

I took a calming breath that did nothing to calm the rising anxiety, a pressure in my chest, and looked again, bit everything just seemed wrong, like a dream.

"Excuse me." I asked to a lady sitting on her balcony smoking something that I knew better than to assume was a cigarette. "Can you tell me what part of Gotham I am in? I seem to be lost."

The woman pushed a strand of frizzed  brown hair out of her vision and took a long drag of whatever she had, barely sparing a judging glance before answering with dry wrinkled lips "The wrong part, kid."

"Yes, I've figured that out, care to elaborate further?" I pried. She blew out a breath of smoke, tapping the roll on the side railing to take the ashes off.

"Get outa my sight, twerp." Her Gotham accent showed loudly, she sounded like she wasn't in the mood to be bothered and I slowly backed away and turned away. I needed to get somewhere where things made sense.

I had a feeling, this one not comforting nor optimistic, that I'd never reach that destination.

\--- _FLASHBACK---_

_"Hey, Nico." I began into the recorder. "I know your not going to get this immediately, and that you'll hate me for this, but I need to ask you for a favor."_

_I tried not to choke on my words, but my throat was closing around them, not wanting to let them self be known and the feeling off suffocation had to be rationalized and swallowed ._

_"You see, somethings about to happen, something not good, and I think it's the time we talked about before. The one from the dreams. I have something that I would like to get back to my family, and they disserve better then being left in the dark. I'm going to leave my fathers ring on the roof of the warehouse, the one where you stayed for a while. I need you to take it to them, tell Leo to transfer all data to the Bat-computer and then tell Leo to open the voice message 'Sparks'." I took a deep breath, trying to think of what to say, or if I should just end it there, clean cut. He didn't deserve that though._

_Nico was like me, he knew loss and death, was a part of them. He didn't need another botched goodbye, not this time. He knew saying goodbye was going to be the hardest part._

_"I....I'm really going to miss you, I hope you can forgive me. I let you down, and I guess I'll never be able to make up for it. I should have helped, or at least not let you shoulder it alone. I know you might hate me, and that's my fault I guess, but they say things are worth more when the creator is gone, and that it isn't until your dead that people will start listening to what you said. You're my best friend, and maybe it was a short time that we knew each other, and maybe we fell apart, but I wouldn't change who you are for the world. I hope you find what you're looking for, Death Boy. You deserve it. I'll see you on the flip slide."_

_I ended the call, tears prickling at the back of my eyes, like a pressure that would never go away. I came back into the room and Thalia turned her head to stare at me, eyes zeroing in on the ring in my palm._

" _What's that?" She questioned, backing away from the window and taking a cautious step towards me. I cleared my throat, it was scratchy and I didn't trust my voice not to crack._

_"It's my note."_

_\---_

 

_Slipping into the building unnoticed wasn't the hard part. I had bat training, that entailed being able to defuse a bomb blindfolded with a paperclip and a piece of gum. Getting into a highly secure building with no casualties and limited defense information was like riding a bike, or fitting into old cloths, or a hundred other analogies that defined the situations simplicity._

_The hard part also wasn't setting the distraction, I had read War and Peace several times, I knew the art of strategy. The planning of details and tricks were something I could do, unlike singing._

_The point was, none of the things that should have been hard, were not. All of the action I was expecting: fighting of security, other descendants, Kronos' lackeys destroying me. Instead, what I got was what I feared most._

_You see, I was expecting a movie ending. The hero dies saving people in an extravagant battle of good versus evil. There would be explosions, death, punches and needless battle. That's how it should have been, except I got the worst thing, a human ending._

_My dagger was gripped tight in my hand, Thalia had given it to me after I asked her to take my ring that contained the sword to the warehouse.  I didn't feel the need to take it with me to my death, something like that contained memories, and my AI._

_Kronos just sat there, looking out the window with a glass of and amber colored alcohol in his willowy hand. He looked devoid of life, this wasn't a heroes ending, not the heroes ending I wanted. The man lifted the drink to his lips before exhaling and letting his head fall back onto the chairs cushioned headrest. He knew I was there, I knew he knew I was there, but I was frozen._

_"In all my life." His voice was crackly, weak, his injury. "I have never met someone so willing to die."_

_He paused, considering his words, or perhaps waiting for an answer. He wasn't going to get one from me._

_"I had hope once, hope that the world would finally begin working in my favor once more. The you were born and then I was back to square one." I swallowed._

_"Many people have died fighting so that I could live, the last remaining lord of time. The one who rose above and changed the course of history without anyone," he chuckled dryly, "anyone knowing."_

_"I haven't aged for a thousand years, more or less. I've watched the world move around me, the ones I didn't care for dying, the ones I did care for encased in time before the natural cycle took them out too. All to come to an end by one, little boy who doesn't know the fear that comes with my name."_

_I found it in me somehow to speak._

_"All of that life, it passing by you. Is it lonely?" My voice acme out less confidant that I wanted it to, but the meaning came across none the less._

_All he replied with was a laugh._

_"What little boy? Do you want to justify your fate by rationalize that you're taking an old, senile man out of his misery?" He turned around in his chair, golden eyes lit like fire and a nose that was upturned to the world. " I wouldn't give you the satisfaction."_

_I flinched without meaning to. All I could do was breathe, but that didn't seem to be going to well._

_"I'm not doing this for satisfaction." I found myself replying, tone slightly more even._

_Another dry laugh._

_"Tell me why you seem to torment me from the day you were born to the present, I killed both of your parents for a shot at delaying my inevitable end and yet here you are and here I am." In his fury, he hauled himself up from the chair painfully, and grabbing his side with his arm. His tone was like venom. "You want to kill me, and if it's not for revenge, then do tell me what it's for."_

_What Thalia said came to mind then, her words filling my brain. A taunt of 'don't lose sight of why your doing this'. It wasn't for revenge, not anymore._

_"It's because it's the right thing to do." Came the simple answer for a very complicated question._

_You could rationalize it, try to understand decisions with an ounce of philosophical ideas. You could have a speech about facing your demons and then making the right decision, and murder was...well murder. I could have done this for a number or reasons, fate, revenge, psychopathic  tendencies.  I didn't have any anger in me, not anymore._

_This was just something that felt like it needed to be done, and that man didn't need to be alive._

_Kronos went quiet over my answer, turning his head to the side to avoid looking in my direction. He didn't reply._

_"What do you have to live for. Is there anyone for you to love anymore? Or are they all just pawns in your life, sacrifices on a big chess board." He sighed._

_  
"What does it matter, just kill me already." He closed his eyes as if waiting for his end to come._

_I swallowed thicker, I would have rather had explosions and death and pain. These weren't the circumstances of heroism. It was far too late to back out now._

_"Any last words?" I blinked back the tears._

_"Who will be able to hear them? We both know that your coming with me." I shrugged._

_"I'm sorry this is what fate made." He shook his head._

_"It's not your fault, little boy, I made you this way. " He took my hand with the knife in it and placed it next to his heart. "Make it quick."_

_I choked back a sob and plunged the knife into his heart. This what it was, there were no explosions, no dramatic acts of heroism._

_Just a world enveloped in blinding white._

_And then nothing._

 

\---

I picked up a sheet of the newspaper for sale. The overwhelming sense of wrong made sense.

The timestamp.

_1987._

25 years in the past.

 

 

 


	26. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ending. Jesus. I've been writing this for like two years. Minimal editing, or course.

 

 

 

 

Nico di Angelo was woken up in the middle if the night by a phone call.

Not many people had his number, actually approximately two people. One was I man named Minos that had been helping him control his powers, helping him reach Bianca and bring her back to life. The other was....well he hoped he wouldn't be the one calling. He wasn't prepared enough to talk to him yet. Even though the last time he saw him was two months ago. They didn't leave off on very good terms, and left that screaming match feeling like he had been shot in the chest.

He dragged himself out of the, for once, warm bed and stumbled to the where his phone was plugged into the wall. He was kind of relieved that Minos was actually calling this time, other than randomly shadow traveling into his room unannounced. Not that it was an excuse to call him at 5 am in the morning.

The he looked at the caller ID, throat closing up.

_Percy._

He was not mentally prepared enough for this. Oh god, what the hell was he doing. He would have to talk to him and then they would get into the same damn argument they had before. They would scream at each other and then they wouldn't talk to each other for a few more months. He couldn't do this.

Panicking, he let the call go to voice mail, if it was really important, he would call again, if not then he was just calling out of spite, or maybe anger.

He didn't call again, but he had gotten a notification for a voicemail. Swallowing his fear, he pressed it.

"Hey, Nico." His voice was hoarse, upset? "I know your not going to get this immediately, and that you'll hate me for this, but I need to ask you for a favor."

A favor? Why would he be calling for a favor, he always preferred to be self sufficient. He never wanted anyone's help. Why was he all of the sudden finding it in himself to actually let people help him? And now? At five am? Seriously?

"You see, somethings about to happen, something not good, and I think it's the time we talked about before. The one from the dreams." At that, he chocked. He remembered the dreams, the prophecy. The _dying._

"I have something that I would like to get back to my family, and they disserve better then being left in the dark. I'm going to leave my fathers ring on the roof of the warehouse, the one where you stayed for a while. I need you to take it to them, tell Leo to transfer all data to the Bat-computer and then tell Leo to open the voice message 'Sparks'." _No no no no no no no no. He was not doing this, he couldn't. Why didn't he call him sooner? Why didn't he pick up?_

"I....I'm really going to miss you, I hope you can forgive me. I let you down, and I guess I'll never be able to make up for it. I should have helped, or at least not let you shoulder it alone. I know you might hate me," _He could never. "_ and that's my fault I guess, but they say things are worth more when the creator is gone, and that it isn't until your dead that people will start listening to what you said. You're my best friend, and maybe it was a short time that we knew each other, and maybe we fell apart, but I wouldn't change who you are for the world. I hope you find what you're looking for, Death Boy. You deserve it. I'll see you on the flip slide."

He choked through his tears and frantically attempted to call him back. All it did was go to voice mail. He couldn't, why did he do this? He couldn't die, he was allowed to. He wouldn't let him die.

He began frantically putting on his boots when his phone rang again, making him gasp through tears and fumble to pick it up. It wasn't Percy, but a restricted number. An unknown caller. He answered it anyway.

"Um hello?" His voice was scratchy and thick from crying, but he didn't care.

"Hello sir." Came the startling reply of a youthful voice, a familiar youthful voice. "This is Leo, Mr. Jacksons personal AI."

"Um yes..?" Maybe he had news, good news.

"It's in my programing to inform you that the message which you were sent was pre recorded hours before the occurrence. I regret to inform you that Mr. Jackson has yet to send notice or retrieve me  and past this point I was ordered to deliver this message and inform you of his passage. I am here to be aware of your decision on retrieving me and delivering me to his family to here their message, your message."

He felt to numb to reply, nearly forgetting to breathe. He was already gone. He...he didn't call. He would have helped him in a heartbeat. He didn't have to do this by himself.

"Mr. Di Angelo." All that came from him was a gasping sound of recognition. "I am aware of your connection to Mr. Jackson, and you are distraught. If it helps, he didn't do it alone. Miss Thalia Grace was his aid, though did not come with him to the ending conflict on order of Mr. Jackson."

He always did things by himself, never letting anyone take the fall. That stupid ass-.

He didn't deserve it, Percy didn't. All he did was try to help, no matter the misguided attempts at trying to be as heroic as Batman. He deserved and ending other than death, he was too good for this. Now he had to go and deliver his suicide note.

"I'll do it, Leo." He choked out after a few moments, and he would, there is no universe where he wouldn't. Honestly, he would do anything for him.

"Best wishes,  Mr. Di Angelo."

Nico hadn't cried in a while, two months to be exact, but didn't hadn't cried that hard since Bianca.

\---

The ring sat on the ledge over looking the street. It was golden and green. It looked like a normal ring.

Nico knew better.

He handled the ring like glass, without really needing to. He slid it onto his finger shakily, on his middle finger because all of the other ones skinny. Percy had had much bigger hands than him, like his fathers. It felt wrong to wear it, like a nausea that settled in his stomach like restless leach. He shook even more as he slid it off his and slipped it into his pocket.

He had a feeling no one was going to wear the ring for a while, or maybe forever.

Once again he slipped into the shadows.

\---

He felt numb to it.

The butler, Alfred if he remembered correctly, ushering him inside after only uttering Percy's name. He knew that he had felt thankful for no further explanation needed. He knew that his face must have been enough to tell the entire story.

Than he came face to a panic-stricken Bruce, he was different from the Batman that he had watched take Percy from the Alley. He looked more human without the mask. People always did.

He held out the ring for him, Bruce focused on it for a moment, then back on his face. Nico watched as his expression cracked further, he could feel his lips trembling.

"P-Percy, Percy." He cleared his throat of the phlegm that had built up from crying. "Percy left me a message to retrieve this for you. He-he said to transfer Leo's files into the Bat-computer and then open, open voice file 'Sparks'."

A boy, he noticed, was peering through the railing of the staircase, his eyes wide. He stood up shakily and stepped behind Bruce.

"Is." The boy, Dick, he remembered now." Is he, you know..." He choked on his words.

He nodded, not trusting his voice any further. Looking away as tears leaked out of the side of his eyes.

Dick struggled with that for a moment, taking shallow labored breaths. He then gripped Bruce's arm and Bruce, remaining in a place between stoic and hysteria, just pulled him in against his chest.

"He's gone."

Bruce's hand plucked the ring out of his hand held it to his chest, as if it was actually him and not a piece of metal. He remained standing as they both fell to their knees. Alfred had his chin to his chest, frown etched in a layer of shadows.

He didn't have the energy in him anymore to cry, not anymore.

\---

It was and hour later when Bruce finally transferred the files to the computer, everything else was quiet other than the occasional squeak of bats in the cave. Nico was the one to speak when the files finished transferring.

"Open voice message 'Sparks', Leo." He spoke with a flat voice. Leo didn't verbally respond, but a hologram appeared.

Bruce hugged Dick close to his chest.  

Percy's face lit of the cave walls, a semi-smiling face. It didn't help as much as he wished it did.

 "Hey guys." The hologram breathed deeply and calmingly, that didn't help either. "I'm sorry for putting you all through this."

Percy looked at his hands. It was almost like he could reach out and touch them.

"After you told me his name, Kronos, a lot of this changed. A friend died, Annabeth. It turned out that the Annabeth that I had met inside my mind wasn't the real one, just a poor imitation. Like a catfish online."

Percy chuckled to himself like the joke was funny.

"Luke, the boy who told me that she had been captured was really the son of Kronos. He was attempting to lure me to my death, and he was almost successful. Then I had gotten this reoccurring dream, a vision. I saw myself killing Kronos and then  dying myself. I thought it was a nightmare at first, but then t happened again and again and it didn't stop. It was like a warning that wouldn't go away."

The hologram stopped for a moment, regaining composer.

"I've learned a lot in the past day. I went to help out a friend, Thalia. She wanted to meet, she said it was an emergency. She was a decedent like me, she has powers over lightning. She was injured, her bother had tried to kill her and she had come to deliver to me, a piece of information of the location of Kronos. I didn't know why Kronos was after me, she did."

Percy cleared his throat.

"You see, she explained that we came from an ancient alien race named the Progens. They came to humans back in ancient Egypt, mating with us and our blood unlocked a hidden trait, or traits, locked in their DNA. The offspring were able to posses powers of the supernatural, regardless of how diluted the bloodline. That's where we come from Nico, your father was a Descendant and he was part of the resistance to take down the Titan gang."

It was like Percy was looking at him.

"The Titan gang was a sour of society, but kept hidden. They were made up of decedents, Kronos was their leader, the thousand year old last lord of time. Then Thalia's father, Zeus. Then Zeus's son, Apollo, a seer and REM user. saw the same vision I kept seeing, Kronos dying. The gang broke out into a war, knowing that their leader was going to die and not wanting to be controlled by it any longer. They didn't agree with Kronos, he was cruel and only fought for himself. My father fought against the gang and Kronos killed him for it, but he didn't know that the child in the dream was me, and he didn't know I existed. When he did find out, he paid off my step father to kill off me, instead he killed my mother."

"I didn't want to go, but I guess I really can't escape my fate." Percy looked like he was close to tears. He knew the feeling well.

"I, I just didn't want to leave you without any explanation. I wanted to say I'm sorry for not telling, but I honestly don't regret the decision. This was something that I had to do by myself, and there didn't need to be any more collateral damage." Percy paused again.

"And, I wanted to say that I love you, most of all. Bruce, your like the father I never really got to have, and Dick you were the best brother in the world, Alfred, the worlds best grandfather. Nico, I think you have to ability to control the physical darkness. The days I spent with you were the best days in my life. I'm sorry that I wasn't more open to you, maybe it would have changed things, maybe not. I love you, and I'm sorry." He turned around when someone made a noise on the background.

"I'm sorry we didn't have more time. Don't blame yourselves for me, because there was nothing you could have done for me, this is my fate. I used to not believe in fate, but I couldn't run from it fast enough." He moved like he was going to shut the screen off before stopping.

"Oh, and Nico. Inside the files are the passwords to your fathers bank account. Turns out he was a very rich man."

The video went black.

Bruce turned to him, questioning.

He swallowed.

Percy Jackson was an asshole.

**fin.**

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, the next book in the series will be introduced soon, but not too soon. Follow the series and keep an eye out if your interested. Don't forget to check out my other books!  
> Peace out.


End file.
